Harvard University to spend $100 million on slavery reparations

Harvard University is designating $100 million for reparations in the form of educational and other support. 

This “Legacy of Slavery Fund” will be used to pay for Harvard’s “reparative efforts” following the release of a 132-page report on the use of slave labor on the Ivy League school’s campus. 

Harvard estimates that it had 70 African and Native American slaves during a 150-year period. 

[RELATED: Ralph Northam signs bill forcing some Virginia universities to start reparations scholarship]

”On April 26, 2022, Harvard President Larry Bacow released the Report of the Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery, accepted the committee’s recommendations in full, and announced a historic commitment of $100 million to fund their implementation,” the university states on its website.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the “1619 Project” author and professor at Howard University, recently called Harvard University’s recently announced $100 reparations fund “way too low.” 

Fox News reports that Hannah-Jones made the comments at the National Antiracist Book Festival, a program of Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for American Research at Boston University.

[RELATED: NYU students demand that the school provide reparations for black students and cut ties with NYPD]

A majority of Americans oppose reparations, according to a 2021 poll conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Upon the release of this report, Bacow stated in a letter to the Harvard community that the $100 million will be divided between an endowment and funds for “current use.”

Though Harvard has not yet clarified how the fund will be used in concrete terms, the university intends to work with the descendants of enslaved individuals identified by historic records during “the process of reckoning and repair.” 

Campus Reform has reached out to Lawrence Bacow and Harvard University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

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