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u.s. news Diahuebs 28 aPRiL 2022

Harvard pledges $100M to research, atone for role in slavery

(AP) — Harvard Universi- Most were identified only by — including several Harvard
ty is vowing to spend $100 a single name, such as Cesar, presidents and high-ranking
million to study and atone Dinah and Venus. officials — and the campus
for its extensive ties with buildings, rooms and profes-
slavery, the school’s presi- “Enslaved men and women sorships that are still named
dent announced Tuesday, served Harvard presidents after them.
with plans to identify and and professors and fed and
support the descendants cared for Harvard students,” Even after slavery was abol-
of enslaved people who researchers found. “More- ished, the report says, promi-
labored at the Ivy League over, throughout this period nent scholars continued to
campus. and well into the 19th cen- promote concepts that fueled
tury, the University and its racist ideas.
President Lawrence Bacow donors benefited from exten-
announced the funding as sive financial ties to slavery.” It cites work by 19th century
Harvard released a new re- The report says the universi- professor Louis Agassiz, who
port detailing the many ways ty “should make a significant pushed discredited theories
the college benefited from monetary commitment, and on “race science” and eu- endowment of more than And acknowledging the en-
slavery and perpetuated ra- it should invest in remedies genics. Another scholar led $50 billion, the largest in the slavement of Native Ameri-
cial inequality. But the report of equal or greater breadth a “physical education” pro- nation. cans, it calls on Harvard to
stops short of recommending than other universities.” Ba- gram that collected students’ build closer ties with New
direct financial reparations, cow said Harvard will at- physical measurements to The report says Harvard England tribes. Harvard
and officials have no imme- tempt to redress its wrongs support research advancing should identify the descen- should recruit more students
diate plans for that kind of through “teaching, research eugenic theories. dants of enslaved people and from tribal communities, the
support. and service.” He is creating a engage with them “through report says, and organize a
committee to implement the In his message, Bacow called dialogue, programming, in- national conference promot-
Harvard, the nation’s oldest report’s suggestions. the findings “disturbing and formation sharing, relation- ing research on the enslave-
and wealthiest college, is the shocking,” and he acknowl- ship building and educational ment of Indigenous people.
latest among a growing num- Building on earlier research edged that the school “per- support.”
ber of U.S. schools attempt- at Harvard, the report details petuated practices that were In accepting the recommen-
ing to confront their involve- how the university depended profoundly immoral.” “Through such efforts, these dations, Harvard joins an in-
ment with slavery and also on the slave trade in its early descendants can recover their creasing number of colleges
make amends for it. years and profited from it for “Consequently, I believe we histories, tell their stories and attempting to move from re-
decades. bear a moral responsibility to pursue empowering knowl- search to action as they rec-
The report, commissioned by do what we can to address the edge,” the report said. oncile with their histories.
Bacow, found that Harvard’s Harvard invested directly in persistent corrosive effects of
faculty, staff and leaders en- the sugar and rum trades in those historical practices on More broadly, it urges Har- Georgetown University
slaved more than 70 Black the Caribbean, along with individuals, on Harvard, and vard to fight racial inequal- in 2019 promised to raise
and Native American people the U.S. cotton and railroad on our society,” he wrote. ity by expanding education $400,000 a year for the de-
from the school’s founding industries. The college’s early options for descendants of scendants of enslaved peo-
in 1636 to 1783. It cautions growth is credited to support The 130-page report includ- enslaved people, especially in ple sold by the school. The
that the figure is “almost cer- from wealthy donors who ed a series of recommenda- the South and the Caribbean. Princeton Theological Semi-
tainly an undercount.” Using accumulated their fortunes tions that Bacow endorsed. It calls on the university to nary created a $27.6 mil-
historical records, researchers through the slave trade and The $100 million will be work closely with histori- lion reparative endowment.
were able to identify dozens industries that relied on it. used to carry out the work, cally Black colleges across the The University of Virginia
of enslaved people by name, with some funding to be country, with new funding to established scholarships for
along with their connection Along with the 70 people made available now and more bring students and scholars the descendants of enslaved
to the university. who were enslaved, the re- to be held in an endowment. to Harvard for up to a year at people.
port also lists their enslavers The university itself has an a time.

Fauci: US in ‘a different moment’ but pandemic not over

(AP) - Dr. Anthony Fau- proving the situation. Press. virus. Still, there have been lulls be-
ci said Wednesday the fore, and while cases are low,
coronavirus is under bet- “We are in a different mo- After a brutal winter surge, Fauci said the U.S. appears they are increasing in many
ter control in the United ment of the pandemic,” said “we’ve now decelerated and to be out of what he called parts of the country. Vaccina-
States. but the pandemic Fauci, the nation’s top infec- transitioned into more of a the “fulminant phase” of the tion rates worldwide are far
isn’t over — and the chal- tious disease expert, in an in- controlled phase,” he said. pandemic, huge variant surg- lower, especially in develop-
lenge is how to keep im- terview with The Associated “By no means does that mean es that at their worst sparked ing countries.
the pandemic is over.” hundreds of thousands of
infections daily, along with To keep improving, Fauci
His comments came a day af- tens of thousands of hospi- ticked off a to-do list: Get
ter he said on the PBS “New- talizations and thousands of more people fully vaccinated;
sHour” that the U.S. was deaths. develop even better vaccines;
“out of the pandemic phase” figure out the best booster
and also told The Washing- COVID-19 cases are at a low- strategy to counter variants;
ton Post that the country was er point than they’ve been in and make sure people can ac-
finally “out of the full-blown months and two-thirds of the cess treatment as soon as they
explosive pandemic phase.” U.S. population is vaccinat- need it.
ed. Nearly half of those who
Fauci’s remarks reflect how need a booster dose have got- “We can’t take our foot
health authorities are wres- ten the extra shot, and effec- off the pedal,” Fauci said.
tling with the next stage of tive treatments are available. “There’s a lot of viral dynam-
the pandemic — how to keep ics throughout the world and
COVID-19 cases and hospi- “We are much, much better we still may get another vari-
talizations manageable and off than we were a year ago,” ant which could lead to an-
learn to live with what’s still he said. other potential surge.”
a mutating and unpredictable