Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice
In 2003, Brown University President Ruth Simmons appointed a Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. The committee, which included faculty members, undergraduate and graduate students, and administrators, was charged to investigate and to prepare a report about the University’s historical relationship to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. It was also asked to organize public programs that might help the campus and the nation reflect on the meaning of this history in the present, on the complex historical, political, legal, and moral questions posed by any present-day confrontation with past injustice. The Committee presented its final report to President Simmons in October 2006. On February 24, 2007, the Brown Corporation endorsed a set of initiatives in response to the Committee’s report.
This site includes:
- The full report of Commission on Memorials
- the University’s response to the committee report;
- the committee’s final report;
- background information about the committee;
- a calendar of events, including video clips of speakers;
- facilities to offer feedback;
- scholarly resources, including a documentary reconstruction of the voyage of a Rhode Island slave ship, a repository of historical documents, and curricular materials for teachers.
