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2 | FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2018
The Chronicle
Bass Connections report recommends Duke engage with its ties to slavery, create new memory sites By Bre Bradham Local and National News Editor
Before Duke became “Duke”—before it had a towering Chapel, labyrinth floors of expansive libraries or five men’s basketball national championships—it was Trinity College in Randolph County. And at Trinity College, worked George Wall. Wall, a former slave, was hired at the school in 1870 as a fourteen-year-old boy by thenPresident Braxton Craven. He was a janitor and bell-ringer, and when Trinity relocated to Durham County at the behest of the Dukes, Wall went with it. His son, George Frank Wall, grew up helping his father clean and later worked in a dining hall at the school. Although a quadrangle on West Campus is named after Craven, you won’t find a memorial to George or his son on Duke’s campus. It’s stories like these—like the labor of George Wall and the complex racial history of Braxton Craven—and how Duke has memorialized the work of white men more often than other groups on which a report and website released today seek to shed light. The 100-page report, titled “Activating History for Justice at Duke,” was compiled by a Bass Connections team called Constructing Memory at Duke under the aegis of Robin Kirk, co-chair of the Duke Human Rights Center. By analyzing 327 sites throughout Duke’s campus, the group exposes the narratives of what stories Duke has chosen to memorialize. Through a story bank, the team aims to make more diverse parts of Duke history accessible to the public, and the students recommend specific sites and stories for Duke to create. In addition to being released so closely to Duke’s 50-year anniversary of the Silent Vigil, the report also comes out on a week where the national dialogue about memory is again being brought to the foreground of conversation. A controversial statue of a doctor who performed experiments on enslaved women was recently removed from Central Park in New York, and Princeton University announced Tuesday that it will name two prominent places on campus for enslaved people.
Kirk said that the idea for the project came from her human rights work and that the team hopes the report helps community members learn about Duke’s history and start conversations about their recommendations. “But I’d like to point out that our report is unique. Along with Duke’s ties to slavery, we also take on Duke’s ties to white supremacy and discrimination in the 20th century. We also wanted to show what our campus could be, with new sites and initiatives that address the past and also lift up other forebears,” she wrote in an email. “Ultimately, we lay out a profoundly hopeful vision for what our campus could be.”
rather a call for more. “We just need more,” Yu said. “A lot more.”
The stories left untold Although the data captures the blunt force of the report, a majority of its pages and a core part of its mission is offering an accessible version of the stories not told by the memory sites currently on Duke’s campus. The report tells the story of Caroline, the slave Washington Duke bought in 1855 for $601, and how both Duke and Julian Carr— who donated the land East Campus is built on and is the namesake of the Carr Building on that campus—were Confederate veterans. By the numbers Unlike Carr, Duke joined the Republican The group of students involved in the project Party, which politically pitted him against digitally mapped and categorized a total of 327 Democrats like Craven, Carr and John sites. Senior Helen Yu, a member of the Bass Franklin Crowell, who became president of Connections team who was heavily involved the institution in 1887. with the digital mapping and data analysis, It also points out “history deserts”— noted that even that is not a complete survey. spaces that are not being utilized to share “What we have is a snapshot. It’s not history or art—like Central Campus and the at all comprehensive and is temporally new dorm on East. dependent,” she said. “But a snapshot does The story bank portion of the report presents tell you things.” more than two dozen According to the short histories, report, 202 of those sites Ultimately, we lay out a including passages on recognize men and 47 profoundly hopeful vision for the workers in Duke’s recognize women, with tobacco warehouses the other 78 recognizing what our campus could be. and about the Ku combined groups. Only robin kirk Klux Klan murders two were categorized as CO-CHAIR OF THE DUKE HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER in Greensboro that recognizing LGBTQ+ IN THE FRANKLIN HUMANITIES INSTITUTE included among the individuals, and most dead two individuals represented either with ties to Duke. donors—111—or faculty—129. Only eight It also tells the story of the “Secret Game” sites represented staff members, and only nine in 1944, when the Medical School’s all-white represented international individuals. intramural basketball team was beaten 88-44 The sites also overwhelmingly represented by what would later become known as North white people. White individuals were recognized Carolina Central University. by 231 of the sites, while the people’s race in 71 Junior Mary Aline Fertin, a member of the sites was unknown. Only 15 sites represented Bass Connections team, said that one of the black people, four represented Asian people stories that stood out to her was that of Mary, and one represented an American Indian. The Persis and Theresa Giles. other five sites were broadly categorized under “They were some incredible women. They “people of color.” took classes at Trinity College before it became Yu noted the report is not meant to be a a women’s school,” Fertin said. “They enrolled knock on the memorials Duke does have, but unofficially, paid their own tuition and worked
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as teachers on the side.” Mumbi Kanyogo is also a junior and a member of the team. She said she found Duke’s treatment of LGBTQ+ students—specifically the Duke police arresting more than 60 individuals who were profiled as gay—and Native Americans the most surprising in a negative way. On the flip-side, Kanyogo said she was happily surprised by the rich history of student activism. In addition to the story bank, the report also recommends specific new proposed sites for the University to consider creating. A mosaic in the Divinity School would tell the story of Duke’s first labor union. A statue dedicated to Caroline would tell the story of Washington Duke’s slave. A globe held up by a hand at the Bryan Center plaza would represent the controversy that stemmed from a Chronicle ad in 2001. Five statues of the first five black students to matriculate at Duke in Craven Quadrangle and a “speaker’s circle” in front of the Allen Building are also proposed, along with pillars on East Campus to honor the Giles sisters and a bulletin board exhibit in the Brodhead Center to recognize Student Action with Farmworkers. Finally, a plaque in Hudson Hall would recognize Duke’s first female engineering students. “The first thing I want the Duke community to do is to kind of take on an intentional commitment to look at whose stories we are telling and how,” Fertin said. Administrative and community response Some administrators and student groups had drafts of the report shared with them prior to its release. Provost Sally Kornbluth wrote in an email that the report represents the impact Bass Connections projects can have outside of the classroom, and commended the students for their work. She said the report provides important foundational information to be used as changes are considered. “The report is thoughtful and offers multiple avenues for future discussion,” she wrote. “The recommendations will be given See REPORT on Page 6