Many American universities are continuing to support reparations for past slavery and racism.
Undergraduate students at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island voted overwhelmingly for the university to identify the descendants of slaves who worked on campus and pay them reparations. Students at the University of Georgia also came to this conclusion to “atone for an urban renewal project that destroyed a Black community in the 1960s to make way for college dorms” (AP News).
Students at Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown University also support reparations and priority admission for students who descend from slaves. Harvard University students are similarly calling for reparations. In response, the school dropped its law school emblem because it derived from the crest of a slave-owning family.
Jason Carroll, former student council president at Brown University, says, “There’s been a shift in America… We’re at a different place. Just a few years ago, it was controversial to say ‘Black Lives Matter.’” Georgetown University released historical report in 2006, created a slavery memorial in 2014, and formed an “Anti-Black Racism” task force to “deliver recommendations soon for how the school can further promote racial equity.”
In Athens, Georgia, students complain that the University of Georgia has stayed silent on the city’s recent efforts to atone for the displacement of some 50 African American families to make way for new school dorms in the 1960s. As students and community members continue to raise their concerns, more major universities are expected to follow other schools’ protocol.