哈佛大学投入1亿美元 设立奴隶制赔偿捐赠基金

4月26日（路透社）-根据哈佛大学校长周二发给所有学生、教职员工的一封电子邮件，哈佛大学将投入1亿美元用于捐赠基金和其他项目，以弥合奴隶制和种族主义遗留的教育、社会和经济差距。

哈佛大学校长劳伦斯·巴考（ Lawrence Bacow ）的电子邮件中包括由哈佛和奴隶制遗产委员会14名成员提出的100页报告的链接。该委员会由法律历史学家和宪法专家Tomiko Brown-Nagin担任主席，他是哈佛大学跨学科Radcliffe高级研究所所长。电子邮件和报告已发送给路透社。

哈佛大学位于马萨诸塞州，这项举动的提出正值就几个世纪以来奴隶制、歧视和种族主义的影响进行更广泛讨论之际。有声音呼吁提供经济或其他赔偿。

该报告列出了在哈佛大学自成立后的147年间，奴隶在校园里劳作以及大学从奴隶贸易和与奴隶制相关的工业中受益的历史，直至1783年马萨诸塞州废除奴隶制度。该报告还记录了哈佛大学将黑人学生排除在外及倡导种族主义的学者。

虽然哈佛大学拥有废奴主义者和民权运动中的重要人物，但报告称：“美国最古老的高等教育机构......为这个时代的种族压迫和剥削永久化提供了帮助。” 

该报告的作者建议为哈佛大学受奴役者的后代提供教育和其他支持，以便他们“能够恢复历史，讲述他们的故事，追求知识”。

其他建议包括常春藤盟校资助暑期项目，将长期资金不足的黑人院校的学生和教师带到哈佛，并将哈佛的学生和教师送到霍华德大学等被称为HBCU的机构。

74岁的马萨诸塞州罗克斯伯里的房地产开发商Dennis Lloyd说：“这是朝着正确方向迈出的一步。”他的血统可以追溯到被皇室奴役的古巴瓦索尔。哈佛法学院成立于1817年，由小艾萨克·罗亚尔遗赠，小艾萨克·罗亚尔的家人在安提瓜的奴隶贸易和糖种植园中赚取了大部分财富。

霍华德大学的劳埃德补充说：“我很高兴看到哈佛大学承认他们与奴隶制有关，他们正在将财政和教育资源扩展到通常无法进入常春藤盟校的学生，当然还有HBCU的联系。”

哈佛大学校长Bacow在电子邮件中表示，委员会将探索将建议转化为行动，大学董事会已授权投入1亿美元，其中一些资金由捐赠组成。

Bacow写道，400多年来，奴隶制及其遗留问题一直是美国生活的一部分。进一步纠正持续影响的工作将需要我们在未来几年做出持久和雄心勃勃的努力。

近年来，美国其他高等教育机构设立了资金来解决奴隶制的遗留问题。去年弗吉尼亚州颁布的一项法律要求五所公立州立大学为被其奴役的奴隶后代创建奖学金。

April 26 (Reuters) - Harvard University is setting aside $100 million for an endowment fund and other measures to close the educational, social and economic gaps that are legacies of slavery and racism, according to an email the university’s president sent to all students, faculty and staff on Tuesday.

The email from Harvard President Lawrence Bacow included a link to a 100-page report by his university’s 14-member Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery. The panel was chaired by Tomiko Brown-Nagin, a legal historian and constitutional law expert who is dean of Harvard's interdisciplinary Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The email and the report were released to Reuters.

The move by the university in Massachusetts comes amid a wider conversation about the impacts of centuries of slavery, discrimination and racism. Some people have called for financial or other reparations.

The report laid out a history of slaves toiling on the campus and of the university benefiting from the slave trade and industries linked to slavery after it was outlawed in Massachusetts in 1783 - 147 years after Harvard’s founding. The report also documents Harvard excluding Black students and its scholars advocating racism.

While Harvard had notable figures among abolitionists and in the civil rights movement, the report said, “The nation’s oldest institution of higher education ... helped to perpetuate the era’s racial oppression and exploitation.”

The report's authors recommended offering descendants of people enslaved at Harvard educational and other support so they “can recover their histories, tell their stories, and pursue empowering knowledge.”

April 26 (Reuters) - Harvard University is setting aside $100 million for an endowment fund and other measures to close the educational, social and economic gaps that are legacies of slavery and racism, according to an email the university’s president sent to all students, faculty and staff on Tuesday.

The email from Harvard President Lawrence Bacow included a link to a 100-page report by his university’s 14-member Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery. The panel was chaired by Tomiko Brown-Nagin, a legal historian and constitutional law expert who is dean of Harvard's interdisciplinary Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The email and the report were released to Reuters.

The move by the university in Massachusetts comes amid a wider conversation about the impacts of centuries of slavery, discrimination and racism. Some people have called for financial or other reparations.

The report laid out a history of slaves toiling on the campus and of the university benefiting from the slave trade and industries linked to slavery after it was outlawed in Massachusetts in 1783 - 147 years after Harvard’s founding. The report also documents Harvard excluding Black students and its scholars advocating racism.

While Harvard had notable figures among abolitionists and in the civil rights movement, the report said, “The nation’s oldest institution of higher education ... helped to perpetuate the era’s racial oppression and exploitation.”

The report's authors recommended offering descendants of people enslaved at Harvard educational and other support so they “can recover their histories, tell their stories, and pursue empowering knowledge.”

Other recommendations included that the Ivy League school fund summer programs to bring students and faculty from long-underfunded historically Black colleges and universities to Harvard, and to send Harvard students and faculty to the institutions known as HBCUs, such as Howard University.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Dennis Lloyd, 74, a real estate developer from Roxbury, Massachusetts, who traces his lineage to Cuba Vassall, a woman enslaved by the Royall family. Harvard Law School was established in 1817 with a bequest from Isaac Royall Jr., whose family made much of its fortune in the slave trade and on a sugar plantation in Antigua.

“I’m happy to see that Harvard has acknowledged their connection to slavery, happy to see they're expanding the financial and educational resources to students who would normally not have access to Ivy League schools, and certainly the HBCU connection,” added Lloyd, who attended Howard.

In his email, Harvard President Bacow said a committee would explore transforming the recommendations into action and that a university governing board had authorized $100 million for implementation, with some of the funds held in an endowment.

"Slavery and its legacy have been a part of American life for more than 400 years," Bacow wrote. "The work of further redressing its persistent effects will require our sustained and ambitious efforts for years to come."

Other U.S. institutions of higher learning have created funds in recent years to address legacies of slavery. A law enacted in Virginia last year requires five public state universities to create scholarships for descendants of people enslaved by the institutions.