Yale University apologizes for its role in slavery

Yale University on Friday became the latest institution to apologize for its connections to slavery, and announced a series of efforts officials hope can help dismantle some of the lasting impacts of slavery.

The Ivy League school, which has been delving into its ties to slavery for years, pledged to widely distribute free copies of a scholarly book of its findings. It also announced several new initiatives, such as funding to train and help aspiring and other educators in the surrounding New Haven, Conn., community, as well as a lecture series on its history with slavery and an exhibit at a local museum.

“Confronting this history helps us to build a stronger community and realize our aspirations to create a better future,” Peter Salovey, Yale’s president, said in a statement. “We recognize our university’s historical role in and associations with slavery, as well as the labor, the experiences, and the contributions of enslaved people to our university’s history, and we apologize for the ways that Yale’s leaders, over the course of our early history, participated in slavery.”

Salovey said that acknowledging and apologizing for this history are only part of the path forward, and that the findings “have propelled us toward meaningful action to address the continued effects of slavery in society today.” The efforts announced Friday builds on previous commitments from the university, including a scholarship for local high school graduates to attend partner historically Black colleges and universities.

The school is one of hundreds across the country and around the world to confront the role of slavery in its past. Last month, Loyola University Maryland acknowledged that it had ties to a 19th-century sale of enslaved people, and a task force recommended that the school continue to examine the university’s history and make its campus more accessible to descendants of that sale.

In September, Georgetown University and the Jesuits gifted $27 million to benefit a foundation helping descendants of enslaved people who were sold to pay off a debt at the school in the 19th century. The university apologized for its role in the slave trade in 2016, a move that prompted a group of descendants to call for a $1 billion foundation to promote reconciliation.

The Yale and Slavery Research Project has been working since 2020 to conduct research and provide a comprehensive understanding of the university’s past. The project has been led by David W. Blight, a premier historian on American slavery and professor at Yale, and included the help of faculty, staff, students and New Haven community members.

The group’s findings are available in the newly released book, “Yale and Slavery: A History,” authored by Blight. The book notes that some of Yale’s founders and early leaders owned enslaved people and the school’s Connecticut Hall was built in part using enslaved labor. Prominent members of the Yale community also joined with local leaders in 1831 to prevent the founding of a Black college in Connecticut, according to the book.