NEW BRUNSWICK — In an effort to acknowledge its historical ties to slavery, Rutgers University will rename two spaces in the heart of its New Brunswick campus after former slaves and a campus library after the university’s first African American graduate.
The university Board of Governors on Wednesday approved the changes, which come after a groundbreaking university report last fall shed new light on Rutgers’ relationship with slavery.
Rutgers, like other early American colleges, depended partly on slaves to help build its campuses and serve its early students and faculty, the university acknowledged in a book titled “Scarlet and Black.” It also relied on financial support from families that bought and sold African Americans, according the book.
“These things need to be discussed. They need to be recognized and not forgotten,” Rutgers President Robert Barchi said. “This is our way of making sure that they are not forgotten, that they are put front and center.”
How Rutgers is connected to slavery
The spaces to be renamed include:
- Renaming the Old Queens Walkway near the main administration building to “Will’s Walkway” after a slave known only as Will who helped lay the building’s foundation. Researchers found Will was leased out for construction work by a New Brunswick doctor who owned him when the school began building Old Queens in the early 1800s.
- Changing the name of the new College Avenue Apartments to the Sojourner Truth Apartments after the former slave and famed abolitionist who was originally owned by the father of Rutgers’ first president. The 14-story building, which opened last fall in the new complex known as The Yard, contains some of the campus’ most upscale student housing.
- Renaming Kilmer Library on the Piscataway campus to the James Dickson Carr Library after Rutgers’ first African-American graduate. Carr, who also has a Rutgers scholarship named after him, graduated from the university in 1892. He went on to earn a law degree from Columbia University and get a top job in the New York City Law Department.
Plaques will be placed in each space so students can learn about the history behind the new names, New Brunswick campus Chancellors Richard Edwards said.
Edwards, who commissioned the report investigating Rutgers’ history, said he hopes students will embrace the effort to recognize African Americans’ role in the development of the university.
“Now that we have done the research and really learned about that history, it’s time to recognize it,” Edwards said.
Founded as Queen’s College in 1766, Rutgers is America’s eighth-oldest university. Its ties to slavery are in no way unique among colonial colleges, but modern day university leaders had never fully explored and acknowledged the relationship until Rutgers celebrated its 250th anniversary last year, Edwards said.
The research was compiled to address the concerns of African American students who pressed university officials about racism on campus.
Rutgers formed a university committee on enslaved and disenfranchised individuals, which issued a series of recommendations, including renaming buildings or spaces on campus, after the “Scarlet and Black” book was published.
The university will announce more initiatives stemming from those recommendations in the future, Edwards said.
Staff writer Kelly Heyboer contributed to this report.
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