[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 7, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E285-E286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IN RECOGNITION OF RIGHTING HISTORICAL UNTRUTHS, RUTH J. SIMMONS FORCES 
               BROWN TO ATONE FOR INVOLVEMENT IN SLAVERY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 7, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to enter into the 
Congressional Record an article in the Washington Post discussing a 
Brown University committee's call for the institution to make amends by 
building a memorial, creating a center for the study of slavery and 
injustice and increasing efforts to recruit minority students, 
particularly from Africa and the West Indies. It is good to see the 
subject of slavery and the question of reparations being addressed with 
integrity and grace.
  The article announces the findings of the university's Committee on 
Slavery and Justice. Appointed three years ago by Brown's president, 
Ruth J. Simmons, the committee recently investigated Brown's historical 
legacy, focusing specifically on its involvement in the transatlantic 
slave trade. The descendant of slaves and the first African American 
president of an Ivy League institution, Ruth Simmons has been steadfast 
in her commitment to uncovering the truths of Brown's past in ways that 
are academically and historically rigorous and just.

[[Page E286]]

  Arguably one of the most traumatic events in western history, the 
issue of slavery continues to instigate debate. Most recently questions 
of reparations, repairing the lives of those forced into the barbarous 
institution of slavery, often discussed in the form of repaying debts 
owed to descendants of slaves, have proven divisive at best and 
controversial at least. Although not called reparations, as reported in 
the article, the committee's recommendations are substantive and 
represent a form of repair. The committee's findings offer an example 
of the many ways that conversations and inquiries around reparations 
may be had in intelligent and sensible ways.
  As stated in the article, the argument around reparations is not 
about a simple monetary gain, rather at the core of the debate is the 
need to acknowledge a part of our history that not anyone has fully 
come to terms with. It is important that we recognize and champion 
Brown's lead. This issue is central to who we are as a people and to 
who we are as a country.

                [From the New York Times, Oct. 19, 2006]

           Panel Suggests Brown U. Atone for Ties to Slavery

                            (By Pam Belluck)

       Boston, Oct. 18.--Extensively documenting Brown 
     University's 18th-century ties to slavery, a university 
     committee called Wednesday for the institution to make amends 
     by building a memorial, creating a center for the study of 
     slavery and injustice and increasing efforts to recruit 
     minority students, particularly from Africa and the West 
     Indies.
       The Committee on Slavery and Justice, appointed three years 
     ago by Brown's president, Ruth J. Simmons, a great-
     granddaughter of slaves who is the first black president of 
     an Ivy League institution, said in a report: ``We cannot 
     change the past. But an institution can hold itself 
     accountable for the past, accepting its burdens and 
     responsibilities along with its benefits and privileges.''
       The report added, ``In the present instance this means 
     acknowledging and taking responsibility for Brown's part in 
     grievous crimes.''
       The committee did not call for outright reparations, an 
     idea that has support among some African-Americans and was a 
     controversial issue at Brown several years ago. But the 
     committee's chairman, James T. Campbell, a history professor 
     at Brown, said he believed the recommendations ``are 
     substantive and do indeed represent a form of repair.''
       The committee also recommended that the university publicly 
     and persistently acknowledge its slave ties, including during 
     freshmen orientation. Dr. Campbell said he believed that the 
     recommendations, if carried out, would represent a more 
     concrete effort than that of any other American university to 
     make amends for ties to slavery.
       ``I think it is unprecedented,'' Dr. Campbell said, adding 
     that a few other universities and colleges have established 
     memorials, study programs or issued apologies, but not on the 
     scale of the Brown recommendations. It was not clear how much 
     the committee's recommendations would cost to carry out.
       ``We're not making a claim that somehow Brown is uniquely 
     guilty,'' Dr. Campbell said. ``I think we're making a claim 
     that this is an aspect of our history that not anyone has 
     fully come to terms with. This is a critical step in allowing 
     an institution to move forward.''
       Even in the North, a number of universities have ties to 
     slavery. Harvard Law School was endowed by money its founder 
     earned selling slaves for the sugar cane fields of Antigua. 
     And at Yale, three scholars reported in 2001 that the 
     university relied on slave-trading money for its first 
     scholarships, endowed professorship and library endowment.
       Dr. Simmons issued a letter in response to the report, 
     soliciting comments from the Brown community and saying she 
     had asked for the findings to be discussed at an open forum. 
     She declined to give her own reaction, saying, ``When it is 
     appropriate to do so, I will issue a university response to 
     the recommendations and suggest what we might do.''
       She said ``the committee deserves praise for demonstrating 
     so steadfastly that there is no subject so controversial that 
     it should not be submitted to serious study and debate.''
       Initial reaction to the recommendations seemed to be 
     appreciative.
       ``It sounds to me like this makes sense,'' said Rhett S. 
     Jones, a longtime professor of history and Africana studies 
     at Brown. ``I did not expect the committee would emerge 
     saying, Well, you know, Brown should write a check.
       ``I never thought that was in the cards. I'm not sure I 
     think it's even appropriate that a university write a check, 
     even though it's pretty widely agreed on that Brown would not 
     be where it is if it were not for slave money. These 
     recommendations seem to me to be appropriate undertakings for 
     the university.''
       Brown's ties to slavery are clear but also complex. The 
     university's founder, the Rev. James Manning, freed his only 
     slave, but accepted donations from slave owners and traders, 
     including the Brown family of Providence, RI. At least one of 
     the Brown brothers, John, a treasurer of the college, was an 
     active slave trader, but another brother, Moses, became a 
     Quaker abolitionist, although he ran a textile factory that 
     used cotton grown with slave labor.
       University Hall, which houses Dr. Simmons's office, was 
     built by a crew with at least two slaves.
       ``Any institution in the United States that existed prior 
     to 1865 was entangled in slavery, but the entanglements are 
     particularly dense in Rhode Island,'' Dr. Campbell said, 
     noting that the state was the hub through which many slave 
     ships traveled.
       The issue caused friction at Brown in 2001, when the 
     student newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald, printed a full-
     page advertisement produced by a conservative writer, listing 
     ``Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery Is a Bad Idea And 
     Racist Too.''
       The advertisement, also run by other college newspapers, 
     prompted protests by students who demanded that the paper pay 
     ``reparations'' by donating its advertising fee or giving 
     free advertising space to advocates of reparations.
       The Brown committee was made up of 16 faculty members, 
     students and administrators, and its research was extensive.
       ``The official history of Brown will have to be rewritten, 
     entirely scrapped,'' said Omer Bartov, a professor on the 
     committee who specializes in studying the Holocaust and 
     genocide.
       The report cites examples of steps taken by other 
     universities: a memorial unveiled last year by the University 
     of North Carolina, a five-year program of workshops and 
     activities at Emory University, and a 2004 vote by the 
     faculty senate of the University of Alabama to apologize for 
     previous faculty members having whipped slaves on campus.
       Katie Zezima contributed reporting.

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