A History Of Slavery At Ivy League Schools
By Dr. Marciene Mattleman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A new book by MIT professor Craig Steven Wilder, Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery and the Troubled History of America's Universities, with a tendril of ivy wrapped around a black chain on its cover, has delved into new sources.
Since 2003, Brown University has investigated the University's ties to slavery and William and Mary, Harvard, Emory are among schools that have completed their own studies. Princeton has begun an undergrad research seminar and the University of Virginia charged a commission to recommend ways to commemorate the University's "historical relationship with slavery and enslaved people."
It is known that Dartmouth's president brought eight black slaves to the campus and a student- study cited the first eight presidents at Princeton owning slaves.
For the most part, schools are not anxious to advertise their involvement with slavery and in reading Wilder's book be prepared for many surprises about how slavery was embedded early in the Ivy institutions.
Learn more in The New York Times.
