Brown to raise money for public schools
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Brown University will raise $10 million for an endowment to help public schools in Providence and begin development of a slavery memorial, the school announced Saturday in response to a report that examines its centuries-old ties to the slave trade.
The university will also explore creating an academic center on slavery and justice, strengthen its Africana Studies Department and revise its official history to provide a more accurate account of the school's early years.
Brown's governing body endorsed the plan, which developed out of recommendations issued last fall by a committee of students, faculty members and administrators. Brown President Ruth J. Simmons formed the committee in 2003 to study the university's early relationship with slavery and recommend how the school should take responsibility.
The university said its endowment, called The Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence, will raise money to improve the quality of the city's public schools and will be overseen by its governing body.
"One of the clearest messages in the Slavery and Justice Report is that institutions of higher education must take a greater interest in the health of their local communities, especially kindergarten through 12th-grade education," Simmons said in a statement.
In addition, the university plans to provide free tuition to a select group of graduate students who will act as urban education fellows and serve in the city's public schools for a minimum of three years.
Providence Mayor David Cicilline, a Brown alumnus, said the fund and the fellowship program could benefit children for generations.
"This initiative establishes Brown University as among the foremost community leaders in Providence, and a national pioneer in developing innovative approaches to strengthening the relationship between universities and their host communities," Cicilline said in a statement.
The school said it would also work with city and state officials in developing ideas and locations for a suitable slavery memorial. It said it would continue supporting historically black colleges and would appoint a committee of experts to plan a center, or major academic initiative, devoted to the research of slavery and justice.
The committee's report, released last October, detailed the role the slave trade played in Brown's early years.
The committee said it identified roughly 30 members of the college's governing corporation who at one time owned or captained slave ships.
Slave labor was also used in the construction of Brown's oldest building, University Hall, and money used to create the university and ensure its early growth derived either directly or indirectly from the slave trade, according to the report.
Brown was formally chartered in 1764 as Rhode Island College. Its founder, the Rev. James Manning, freed his only slave but accepted donations from slave owners and traders, including the Brown family of Providence.
John Brown, a slave trader, put up half the money for Brown's first library. But one of his brothers, Moses Brown, and a nephew, Nicholas Brown Jr., became ardent abolitionists and worked to end slavery by pushing for a tougher prohibition against slave ships entering American ports. Nicholas Brown Jr. is the university's namesake.
