Providence, R.I. – Brown University should invite fresh reflection of its dark history involving the slave trade without bringing shame, a panel studying the issue said Wednesday, recommending the creation of a memorial and an academic center focused on slavery and justice.
The 17-member Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice offered several recommendations on how the university should take responsibility, including a commitment to recruit and retain minorities, especially those from Africa and the West Indies.
“We cannot change the past,” said the 106-page report, released on the university’s website. “But an institution can hold itself accountable for the past.”
In 2003, Brown president Ruth Simmons, the first black president of an Ivy League school and a descendant of slaves, appointed the committee of students, faculty and administrators to study the university’s centuries- old ties to the slave trade.
Brown was chartered in 1764 as the College of Rhode Island. Its founder, the Rev. James Manning, freed his only slave but accepted donations from slave owners and traders, including the Brown family of Providence. One family member, Nicholas Brown Jr., is the university’s namesake.
The panel said there was no question that much of the money used to create Brown and ensure its early growth came either directly or indirectly from the slave trade.
The panel found a document hanging in the school’s oldest building that mentions slaves whose labor helped build it.
