Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative
Grounded in Harvard’s mission and driving purposeful change.
Featured Story: An Update from Memorial Project Committee Co-Chairs
Committee co-chairs reflect on priorities for 2025 and the importance of honoring enslaved people through memorialization.
Featured Story: Slave Database Moving to Harvard
Publicly accessible digital tool compiles four decades of scholarship on more than 30,000 voyages and 200,000 people.
The Report
The Report, prepared by the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery, advances our quest for truth through scholarship about the University’s historic ties to slavery—direct, financial, and intellectual.
Harvard Spotlight
Andrea Jackson Gavin
Andrea Jackson Gavin is the inaugural program director of the HBCU Digital Library Trust. Funded by the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative, the Trust collaborates with HBCUs, the HBCU Library Alliance, Harvard Library, and the Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library to sustain and deepen capacity for the digitization, discovery, and preservation of Black history collections held by HBCU libraries and archives.
About Us
Our mission is to tell the truth about our legacies of slavery and work to mend enduring harms through purposeful change grounded in Harvard’s educational mission and the Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery’s recommendations.
Learn more about the Initiative and the people implementing the work
The Report
Harvard University began reckoning with our legacy of slavery more than 15 years ago. In April 2022, the Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery was released. This Report details three difficult truths about the University’s direct, financial, and intellectual ties to slavery, along with seven broad recommendations.
Implementation
Harvard University takes responsibility for our legacy of slavery and seeks to mend the harm done to descendant communities, the Harvard community, Cambridge, Boston, and beyond. We recognize that repair efforts take time. Over the next few years, the Initiative will focus our efforts on three priority areas: memorialization, advancing HBCU partnerships, and supporting descendant communities. We will also continue to provide learning opportunities and invite the Harvard community to join our reparative work.
Get Involved
As the Initiative enters the next phase of our strategy, we want to hear from you and leverage opportunities for partnership and learning.
News and Events
Stay up-to-date on the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative’s latest news and events.
Update from the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative’s Memorial Project Committee
Committee co-chairs reflect on priorities for 2025 and the importance of honoring enslaved people through memorialization.
Slave trade database moving to Harvard
Publicly accessible digital tool compiles four decades of scholarship on more than 30,000 voyages and 200,000 people.
Harvard Slavery Descendants Program: What’s Next?
Vice Provost for Special Projects Sara Bleich offered assurances about the administration’s commitment to the program’s mission—and to the larger initiative it is part of.