Harvard University has been in the news of late with the resignation of Dr. Claudine Gay, the first Black president whose tenure was a mere six months.
What we should know is the history of Harvard and Slavery. In 2019, the then president, Lawrence S. Bacow, commissioned faculty members to explore the connection. This resulted in a 134-page report and a promise of $100 million to create an endowed fund.
Harvard was founded in 1636 as “the first institution of higher learning in Colonial America.” The school began as a training ground for aspiring ministers. Harvard had more than 70 slaves serve as Presidents of the college, faculty, and staff. Many of the board members and politicians connected with Harvard also had slave connections. The university benefited from plantation owners. Three Harvard college presidents owned slaves and were on campus as early as 1639. https://www.harvardandslavery.com/about/
Mr. Richard Theodore Greener
The first African American to graduate from Harvard was Mr. Richard Theodore Greener. He was a contemporary of Frederick Douglas. He received his degree in 1870. He became a professor, attorney, and diplomat. He was a Chicago resident living on the South Side at the time of his death. Just this year, he is beginning to get recognition. From 1890 to 1940, it is estimated that 160 Blacks graduated from Harvard; that‘s about 30 per decade.
Harvard and Slavery…
Harvard is not the puritan of scholarship and intellectualism it pretends to be. Its past includes a shady background beyond slavery.
The report reveals, “Harvard faculty members played a role in disseminating bogus theories of racial differences that were used to justify racial segregation to underpin Nazi Germany’s extermination of “undesirable” populations.”
Faulty research is a part of Harvard’s legacy. “In the 19th century, Harvard began to amass human anatomical, including the bodies of enslaved people, that would, in the hands of the university’s prominent scientific authorities, become central to the promotion of so-called race science at Harvard and other American institutions.”
Dr. Claudine Gay
Given Harvard’s legacy relating to Black America, the incident of Dr. Claudine Gay is not surprising. Her presidency was a mere six months. Her scholarly research was challenged for what amounts to quotation marks and citations. A close look at Harvard, the esteemed institution, has produced shameful and racist research.
Regretfully, Gay resigned; she should have fought with facts about Harvard. Dr. Gay’s lack of citations compared to Harvard’s faulty research is far more serious. What the esteemed institution of higher learning might do to rectify itself is to give a research project to law and business students. The Reparation Project. The thesis is what reparations would look like in America. It could be examined and calculated from a legal and economic perspective.
So, given Harvard’s legacy, are we surprised about Dr. Gay’s plight? The truth is that Harvard is the institution of higher learning that gave us scholarly research on racism.
