Yale’s Slavery Project Interrogates History, Takes Action

February 16, 2024

President Salovey and Senior Trustee of the Yale Corporation Josh Bekenstein recently shared a university statement on the findings of the Yale and Slavery Research Project, work that began several years ago.

As Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and African Studies Willie James Jennings, PhD says in the “Why This History Matters” video: “It’s time now to do this important task because if we’re going to continue to train the next generation of leaders, we need to reckon with our own racial past. And that past centers in slavery: the buying and selling of human beings without their consent.”

Dr. Jennings is right. As nurses at a school with the mission of better health for all people, it is painful to face these facts of the university’s past, but it is also the only way to make real progress toward our goal.

Yale has also published the book “Yale and Slavery: A History,”a digital version of which is available online for free. The research findings include facts about the enslaved people who helped build Connecticut Hall, and the university’s early founders and leaders who owned enslaved people. Research also discovered that in 1831 Yale and New Haven leaders combined forces to block what would have been the first Black college in the United States.

In light of this information, I am pleased that Yale is also taking steps now to increase education access, enhance excellence in teaching and research, advance inclusive economic grown in partnerhip with New Haven, and share the research results widely. That includes HBCU partnerships, scholarships, and a range of outreach to New Haven schools.

Efforts also include working with the Pathways to Science program, which pairs the YSN Simulation Team with nearly 100 middle school and high school students in New Haven, West Haven, and Orange each year. Yale is also giving greater financial support to the New Haven Promise program, and we had such a great experience hosting our first New Haven Promise Scholar last year that we’re already looking forward to welcoming our second this summer.

I invite all of you to fully investigate the research and the action items in the Yale News article “Yale vows new actions to address past ties to slavery, issues apology, book.”