Vice Provost for Special Projects
Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative
Addressing systemic inequities by developing and advancing visible, lasting, and effective action grounded in Harvard’s educational mission and guided by the recommendations and findings of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery.
We know this work will be complex, challenging, and full of tough decisions, but it could not be more important.![]()

Stories
Legacies of Slavery: From the Institutional to the Personal
Tasked with uncovering entanglements with slavery at their respective institutions, two leaders reckon with the past and explore ideas for future projects.
Saying their names
Scholars involved in Legacy of Slavery Initiative discuss findings, remind that each of enslaved was ‘real person …with dreams, with pain’
Giving Voice to Slavery’s Voiceless
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, alongside Harvard students Stacey Fabo, Ogechukwu Ogbogu, and Suleyman Wellings-Longmore, reaches back into the emotions of the past to understand the emotions of the present.
COVID and Campus Closures: The Legacies of Slavery Persist in Higher Ed
With his recent research, Anthony Abraham Jack paints a bigger picture of the doubly disadvantaged—students who are low income and from schools in underserved communities.

Report on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery
On April 26, 2022, Harvard President Larry Bacow released the Report of the Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery, which documented the University’s ties to slavery—direct, financial, and intellectual—and offered seven recommendations that will guide the work of reckoning and repair
The H&LS Newsletter
Get monthly updates on the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative.