Ebony and Ivy Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities

Craig Steven Wilder

eBook - 2013

A groundbreaking exploration of the intertwined histories of slavery, racism, and higher education in America, from a leading African American historian.A 2006 report commissioned by Brown University revealed that institution's complex and contested involvement in slavery—setting off a controversy that leapt from the ivory tower to make headlines across the country. But Brown's troubling past was far from unique. In Ebony and Ivy, Craig Steven Wilder, a rising star in the profession of history, lays bare uncomfortable truths about race, slavery, and the American academy.Many of America's revered colleges and universities—from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to Rutgers, Williams College, and UNC—were soaked in the sweat, t...he tears, and sometimes the blood of people of color. Slavery funded colleges, built campuses, and paid the wages of professors. Enslaved Americans waited on faculty and students; academic leaders aggressively courted the... more