By Victor Trammell

Photo credits: William Burgis

Earlier last month, Harvard University revealed the results of a 134-page report outlining the university’s major ties to slavery throughout history.

In the investigation, it is shown that a slew of prominent individuals associated with Harvard were all complicit in the enslavement of Black people, including four previous Harvard presidents.

According to the research, Harvard commissioned this probe in 2019 as part of a growing trend of colleges tackling their own histories, as well as the contemporary legacy of racial discrimination.

“Harvard’s ties to slavery begin with the founding of the institution,” said MIT historian Craig Steven Wilder, the author who wrote the book Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities.

“We’re really only beginning to reconcile and to really struggle with the deep ties that this institution has to slavery,” Wilder continued, according to Democracy Now.

First, a committee of renowned academic members from around the University supervised an extensive study to find the truth about Harvard’s links to slavery. This was the main phase of the project’s effort, which focused on uncovering the truth about Harvard’s ties to slavery.

With this investigation, researchers tried to lay a solid basis for the process of reckoning and repairing the darkest parts of Harvard’s sketchy legacy.

Read Harvard University’s entire study report based on its historic ties to slavery here.