The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
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VOLUMECXLIX, NO. 64 |
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
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MONDAY, MAY 2, 2022
Where Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery Lives Today STOUGHTON HALL
By CARA J. CHANG, ISABELLA B. CHO, ELLA L. JONES, and MONIQUE I. VOBECKY
FORMER SITE OF FOXCROFT HALL
BRATTLE STREET
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
Harvard’s campus is replete with the names of prominent historical figures who were essential to the development of the University and Massachusetts. These individuals and their generational legacies are honored through plaques, professorships, buildings, and streets that form the face of Harvard. But many last names familiar to any Harvard student are also associated with a darker legacy. A landmark University report released last week found that at least 41 prominent Harvard affiliates enslaved Black and Indigenous people — and many others propagated discrimination and racism through their leadership and scholarship at the University. The report, produced by the University’s Presidential Commission on the Legacy of Slavery, identified more than 70 Black and Indigenous people enslaved by Harvard faculty, staff, and leaders — some of whom lived and worked on campus. Its appendix included a list of known slave owners, detailing how they are memorialized on campus. See Page 6 for the houses, dormitories, professorships, streets, and towns that memorialize the legacy of slavery and discrimination at Harvard.
PERKINS ROOM WILLIAM BRATTLE HOUSE
WADSWORTH HOUSE SITE OF BORDMAN HOME
BRATTLE SQUARE
WIGGLESWORTH HALL
HOLYOKE STREET & WINTHROP STREET
TROWBRIDGE STREET
WINTHROP HOUSE LEVERETT HOUSE
MATHER HOUSE
SEE PAGE 6
PHOTOS BY JULIAN J. GIORDANO, CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER. DESIGN BY CAMILLE G. CALDERA, CRIMSON DESIGNER. MAP BY MAP TILER AND OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTERS.
Estabine and Johnson to Lead HUA Black Arts Colletive
Hosts Tracy K. Smith
By J. SELLERS HILL CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
LyLena D. Estabine ’24 and Travis Allen Johnson ’24 will serve as the first co-presidents of the newly-formed Harvard Undergraduate Association, the body’s election commission announced Saturday. After students voted overwhelmingly to dissolve Harvard’s 40-year-old Undergraduate Council last month, six tickets entered the race to serve as the first co-presidents of the new student government. Seven of the 12 candidates formerly served in the UC. Estabine, a Sociology concentrator, and Johnson, a Government concentrator, both previously served on the UC as representatives from Lowell House and Winthrop House, respectively. Both supported the effort to dissolve and replace the UC.
SEE HUA PAGE 3
By VIVI E. LU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
LyLena D. Estabine ’24 and Travis Allen Johnson ’24, pictured on the steps of Widener Library, were elected co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Association. PHOTO COURTESY LYLENA D. ESTABINE & TRAVIS ALLEN JOHNSON
The Black Arts Collective, a new undergraduate organization dedicated to Black artistry at Harvard, showcased student performers at its inaugural mixer on Friday. The event, held in the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, featured a conversation with Harvard English and African and African American Studies professor Tracy K. Smith ’94 — a United States Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner. “It was a dream to have her present, and I’m glad that she came and spoke true words of wisdom,” said Toussaint J. Miller ’25, who helped organize the event. The mixer, which drew more than 50 people, was the first
event organized by Black Arts Collective. The new group is led by Miller, Mariah M. Norman ’25, Anya N. Sesay ’25, and Jetta M. Strayhorn ’25. “It was amazing to have all of our student performers,” Miller said. “It shows how much of Black Harvard and people who support Black Harvard identifies as a community.” “That’s why we’re called the Black Arts Collective — because we are a family,” Miller added. Sesay called the mixer a “beautiful inaugural event.” The student performers included Miller, who performed an original composition and called on the audience to harmonize with him, along with Sesay and Strayhorn, who recited poetry. Devon N. Gates ’23 played
SEE COLLECTIVE PAGE 3
Radcliffe Hosts Conference on Harvard’s Ties to Slavery MGH Study By CAROLINE E. CURRAN and SARA DAHIYA CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
University President Lawrence S. Bacow spoke at a conference about Harvard’s legacy of slavery, held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study on Friday. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
News 3
Editorial 4
Sports 5
Following the release of a long-awaited report that detailed the “integral” role slavery played in shaping Harvard, University President Lawrence S. Bacow on Friday pledged to marshal the school’s resources to “repair the damage” caused by the legacy of slavery. Bacow’s remarks came at a day-long event held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study that was dedicated to discussing a landmark University report released last week that detailed how slavery “powerfully shaped Harvard.” Harvard has pledged to allocate $100 million to implement the recommendations of the report, which found that prominent University affiliates enslaved more than 70 people and that slavery was a key source of the school’s wealth across three centuries.
TODAY’S FORECAST
“The reality is that slavery played a significant role in our institutional history,” Bacow said. “That this truth has been obscured for so long should prompt our indignation — and it does — but, more importantly, it must also prompt our action.” The event, entitled “Telling the Truth about All This: Reckoning with Slavery and Its Legacies at Harvard and Beyond,” featured addresses from Bacow, Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber ’76, Radcliffe Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Prairie View A&M University President Ruth J. Simmons, and Boston University Center for Antiracist Research Director Ibram X. Kendi, among others. Speakers at the event came discussed the report’s findings and its significance for higher education. Brown-Nagin, who chaired the committee that produced the report, opened the
RAINY High: 57 Low: 46
SEE RADCLIFFE PAGE 3
Links Heart Failure and Infertility By DANISH BAJWA and TARAH D. GILLES CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
A recent study published by Harvard affiliated-researchers in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found infertility in women to be linked with a 16 percent increase in risk of heart failure. The study — conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital with support from the American Heart Association and the National Institute of Health — analyzed data from more than 35,000 post-menopausal women. The researchers found a
SEE MGH PAGE 3
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