CAMBRIDGE, Mass. ― Harvard’s president says the Ivy league university will do more to acknowledge its ties to slavery.
University President Drew Faust announced Wednesday in an op-ed in the student newspaper that the nearly 400-year-old institution will install a plaque next month at the former home for college presidents to recognize the slaves who lived and worked there. Slavery was abolished in Massachusetts in 1783.
She’s also convened a committee to recommend other campus sites warranting similar recognition and says Harvard will host a conference on universities and slavery next year.
Faust said in her op-ed that Harvard, like many New England institutions, was “directly complicit in America’s system of racial bondage” but has rarely acknowledged it.
The announcement comes as Harvard has taken steps to remove university symbols and references that harken to the slave era.
