Last week, undergraduates at Brown University voted overwhelmingly in favor of the institution offering reparations to descendants of slaves who were affiliated with the school and its founders.
What We Know:
- During an annual election, over 2,000 undergraduate students cast a ballot on two referendum questions that asked whether the school should make “all possible efforts to identify the descendants of enslaved Africans who were entangled with and/or afflicted by the University and Brown family and their associates,” and whether or not Brown should provide reparations to the descendants of slaves. According to NBC, both questions received an approval rate above 80%.
- According to the Undergraduate Council, the students voted to include reparations through multiple channels, including preferential admission for descendants of enslaved people, direct payments to descendants, and targeted investments in Black communities.
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- The university examined its historical ties to slavery back in 2006, admitting to owning slaves but not becoming a major slave trader. A spokesperson of the Ivy League school, Brian Clark, said in a statement: “Confronting questions of reparations and institutional reckoning with connections to the transatlantic slave trade has a deep history at Brown. The University interrogated this issue as a full community […], and Brown committed to a series of actions whose impact persists in our education, research, engagement with historically underrepresented groups, and ongoing work in diversity, equity, and inclusion. The current work of Brown’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism will make recommendations on more Brown can do to address the legacy of slavery.”
- Brown is not the first college to issue reparations to the descendants of slaves. The university follows Georgetown University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the University of Chicago in their efforts to execute reparative justice.
It has not been announced when these changes will take effect.
