If Mr. Jefferson's University were to follow the lead of Brown University and organize a committee to examine its historical ties to slavery, many less talked-about details of its founder's life might be brought to light.
Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons appointed a Committee on Slavery and Justice in April of 2003. Last night the committee held its first program, "Unearthing the Past: Brown University, the Brown Family and the Rhode Island Slave Trade."
Simmons, the great-granddaughter of slaves, is the first black president of an Ivy League university.
Like the University, Brown is known to have early links to slavery, and many of its major benefactors at one time owned and traded slaves.
In the president's charge to committee members, published on the Brown Web site, Simmons says she hopes the faculty-student steering committee will accomplish a number of tasks.
"I hope [the committee] will help the campus and the nation come to a better understanding of the complicated, controversial questions surrounding the issue of reparations for slavery," she wrote. "The charge to the committee will be to organize academic events and activities that might help the nation and the Brown community think deeply, seriously and rigorously about the questions raised by this controversy."
The issue of reparations for slavery arose at the end of the Civil War when Congress passed a bill to allocate 40 acres of land and a mule to former enslaved blacks who fought against the Confederacy. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill.
The University currently does not have plans to form a committee like Brown's. However, some faculty members said they would support such a move.
Anthropology Prof. Wende Marshall said her experience as a black faculty member has been affected by the University's history.
"It's very peculiar to be a black faculty member at this University where Thomas Jefferson is considered a deity," she said. "I feel like it -- in very, very significant ways -- effaces my presence as a historic person."
Marshall said she is proud of Simmons' decision and would like to see such a program implemented here. However, she said she is doubtful the Board of Visitors would support such a program.
"It would behoove U.Va. to consider such options," Marshall said. "However, I have my doubts that it would happen."
Dean of African-American Affairs M. Rick Turner agreed these historical issues should be addressed.
"We have an intimate history to the institution of slavery, but we never talk about it," Turner said. "Instead we talk about the glorification of Thomas Jefferson."
At Brown, the need for reparations is being discussed by the new committee.
"We're trying not to talk about reparations so as not to influence the committee as it goes forward," said Mark Nickel, Brown University director of news services.
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