Emory College: Reflecting on Past Ties to Slavery

One of the United States’ prestigious Southern universities, Emory College, has officially acknowledged its use of slave labor at the time of its founding and is coming to terms with its past.

Emory’s executive committee of the Board of Trustees issued a special statement on Jan. 14, the 175th anniversary of the school’s founding. The statement affirmed that “Emory acknowledges its entwinement with the institution of slavery throughout the College’s early history,” while emphasizing that “Emory regrets both this undeniable wrong and the University’s decades of delay in acknowledging slavery’s harmful legacy,” offering an official apology.

It further stated, “As Emory University looks forward, it seeks the wisdom always to discern what is right and the courage to abide by its mission of using knowledge to serve humanity.”

Emory College came to employ slave labor in its founding in 1836 by Methodist church leaders. One of the Emory’s founders, Methodist minister John Emory, was himself a slave owner, and during the school’s construction his slaves were employed in the building of the Oxford campus.

John Emory, who gave his name to Emory University, was the college’s first professor and first chairman of the Board of Directors. In this light, the Jan.14 statement rings as an acknowledgement of a painful past, as well as a proper apology.

However the university has decided to move beyond a simple acknowledgement and apology and, since the 3rd of this month, has decided to host a conference to shine light on the role of slavery in the founding of several American institutes of higher education.

It has been announced that, along with 30 other various representatives, Brown University President Ruth Simmons would be attending the conference. In 2006 Brown University also acknowledged its ties to slave labor during its construction. Emory College has made a difficult choice in acknowledging this inconvenient past, which must have caused much pain and taken much time.

The Methodist founders of the school also underwent the pain of the North-South division in the United States on the issue of slavery, a division later incarnated in the country’s civil war. Furthermore, in 1902 Emory professor Andrew Sledd was ousted from his position at the school after criticizing the lynching of black people.

However, since the 1960s Emory has shown itself to be an institution that embraces much more progressive values. In particular, in 1962 when the Georgia State government passed a law revoking tax exemption benefits for universities that integrated black students, Emory College was among those that filed a lawsuit against the state. Also, in 2007 the College introduced a system of financial aid for students of low-income backgrounds; and of its 13,381 person student body 16.6 percent are of Asian descent, 10.4 percent are black, and 4.2 percent Hispanic, making a full one-third of the student body ethnic minorities.

It is in this atmosphere of progressive thought that Gary Hauk, vice president of the College, wrote a book entitled “Where Courageous Inquiry Leads,” revealing the school’s historical ties to slavery. The publication of the book spurred Emory’s Board of Directors to discuss the school’s history and, finally, to apologize for the past and take the measures they have recently taken. The Board’s director, Ben Johnson said that “whether an individual or an organization, the only way to move forward is to acknowledge the past.” President Jim Wager added that “[Emory] has to acknowledge [its] history, be it glorious or embarrassing.” Emory’s students, through editorials in the student-run newspaper, enthusiastically welcomed the school’s statement and its reflection on its own past.