Harvard and higher education’s accountability for historic ties to slavery

The news that Harvard University is setting aside $100 million to study and address the repercussions of its historical ties to slavery is only one such recent announcement by wealthy American institutions of higher education grappling with their pasts. In 2021, Georgetown University in Washington D.C. announced its own $400,000 annual financial aid reparations program affirming its obligations to the descendants of over 200 enslaved persons sold by that institution in the 1830s, including paying for tuition at Georgetown.