BOSTON (AP) — Harvard University is vowing to spend $100 million to research and atone for its ties with slavery.
Harvard President Lawrence Bacow announced the funding Tuesday alongside a new report detailing many ways the college benefited from slavery and perpetuated racial inequality.
The report found that Harvard’s faculty, staff and leaders enslaved more than 70 Black and Native American people from the school’s founding in 1636 to 1783.
"I believe we bear a moral responsibility to do what we can to address the persistent corrosive effects of those historical practices on individuals, on Harvard, and on our society," Bacow said.
The report says the university “should make a significant monetary commitment, and it should invest in remedies of equal or greater breadth than other universities.”
It stops short of recommending direct financial reparations.
