Reparations No. 30

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

“They stab it with their steely knives But they just can’t kill the beast.” — Hotel California, by The Eagles

This lyric sums up my view of reparations for American slavery — we just can’t kill the beast. I received an e-mail this evening from a paragon of truth and reality, the Harvard Gazette. I saw an article presuming everyone was on board with the second worst idea in American history. My heart be still. So, dear reader, I return once again to the land of misfit ideas, untruths, and dogmas.

Like meeting an old friend at the Harvard Club.

=========

When I clicked on the link (mistake no. 1), I was greeted with a majestic black and white image of W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois wrote The Souls of Black Folks in 1903. His words about the color line have informed the ideas of generations of black intellectuals and scholars. DuBois himself was a 1890 graduate of Harvard College and 1895 recipient of a PhD from Harvard University. It is fitting at first glance that a cover page trumpeting reparations for slavery would enlist the warm and fuzzy feelings we all have for Dr. DuBois.

https://www.harvard.edu/vice-provost-for-special-projects/our-legacy/

But if one uses one’s discernment to peer behind the brand manipulation, one becomes disturbed as I did. I don’t like misdirection from university leadership.

What do I mean?

The intellectual face of a real giant, Du Bois, is used to usher in the Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery. But guess what?

DuBois never called for express reparations for American slavery. He simply did not. Review his seminal work, The Souls of Black Folks. Not one use of the slogan word reparations. Nor did DuBois use the slogan words “legacy of slavery.” Why would a man who knew former slaves never use the words “legacy of slavery?” DuBois was born in the year 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War. He studied down South in Tennessee where he obtained his first college degree. One will not find the slogan “legacy of slavery” in The Souls of Black Folks.

I suggest “the legacy of slavery” is a made-up term embraced by people who never knew a slave or anyone who knew a slave.

Another slogan phrase is “the University’s ties to slavery.” This slogan is misleading. Show me the resolution where the Board of Overseers blessed slavery. Show me the charter provision for Harvard institutionalizing slavery. Show me where Harvard University cast its lot with the Confederate States of America. I don’t see these ties that bind. I just don’t.

Next up in the pantheon of slogan words would be the “reckoning.” Sends shivers down one’s spine. A reckoning. (Clearing my throat)

There is no compelling need for any reckoning by Harvard. If anything, Harvard was at the forefront of black achievement throughout American history. The first black graduate of a law school was George Lewis Ruffin, Class of 1869 at Harvard Law School. Of course, Dr. DuBois graduated from Harvard College in 1890 and the PhD program in 1895. Richard Greener was the first black graduate of Harvard College in 1870. Charles Hamilton Houston was the black editor of the Harvard Law Review in the early 1920s and his second cousin, William Hastie, served on the Harvard Law Review in the late 1920s. William T. Coleman, Jr. graduated first in his law class of 1946 and would become the first black U.S. Supreme Court clerk in 1948. And, of course, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are both graduates of Harvard Law School.

I guess they don’t teach Black History anymore around Harvard Yard.

When the President talks about “repair,” what is there for Harvard to repair on the racial front? Even the current president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, is a Black Woman. If anything, Harvard should hold its head high and prance around Cambridge with swagger. Alas, we don’t do truth and reality so much in the public square anymore.

=========

This was the just the cover sheet to the formal report on Harvard and slavery. More leaps of logic and historical losses of memory await us. It is late and I don’t have time for a full-throated critique of the report. Maybe some other time. For now, let’s tip toe through some highlights. https://legacyofslavery.harvard.edu/report

=========

The Report begins with a slogan word front and center — “Legacy of Slavery.” What is a legacy of slavery? How are we defining our terms? There is no one definition and, indeed, many readers might argue there is no concrete, specific legacy of slavery in the modern era. I would be in this camp.

Public school desegregation in the fall of 1969 was the most meaningful racial event in my life. Slavery was a non-event. I learned about slavery in my Virginia history textbook in the 4th grade. I was not a slave. Nor were my parents or grandparents. So, at some point, we are parsing over the sediment of a dead past. Do we really want a haunted present. Do we really want to go there as a Harvard community?

Veritas is the motto, the aim and purpose of Harvard. The purpose and meaning of Harvard should not be dogma.

As I reviewed the Table of Contents, I longed for the positive. Where was the good? The constructive? I grew annoyed at the negative narrative on race and Harvard.

I did not see Richard Greener in the Table of Contents. Greener was the first black graduate of Harvard College in 1870.

I did not see Martin Delany. Delany was one of three black men admitted to Harvard Medical School in 1850.

I did not see George Lewis Ruffin. Ruffin was the first black graduate of a law school. And the law school at the vanguard of black legal education was Harvard Law School.

I did not see Robert Morris, Jr. Robert Jr. was the first black lawyer son of a black lawyer father. Robert Jr. graduated from Harvard Law School.

Charles Hamilton Houston created the brilliant litigation strategy that lead to the Brown decision in 1954. A proud graduate of Harvard Law School, mentor to Thurgood Marshall and no mention in the Table of Contents.

William H. Hastie became the first black Judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and was the first black lawyer considered for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. No mention of Judge Hastie in the Table of Contents.

William T. Coleman, Jr., first in his Harvard Law School class of 1946, would become Secretary of Transportation in the Ford Administration Cabinet, partner at a major law firm, and co-author of the Brown brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. No mention of Secretary Coleman in the Table of Contents.

Derrick Bell became the first black tenured law professor at Harvard Law School. No mention of Bell in the Table of Contents.

Reginald Lewis would found the first black law firm on Wall Street and buy a billion dollar business before passing away too young. He was one of the largest benefactors to Harvard Law School. No mention of Lewis in the Table of Contents

Justice Jackson is the first black female member of the U.S. Supreme Court. A graduate of Harvard Law School but not worthy of mention in the Table of Contents.

Michelle Obama is the first black First Lady. A graduate of Harvard Law School and absent from the Table of Contents.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama is a past President of the Harvard Law Review. As the first Black President of this country, maybe President Obama warrants a mention in the Table of Contents to show Harvard has been on the right side of racial history? Nada, there is no mention of President Obama in the Harvard Report’s Table of Contents.

=========

Conclusion: The Harvard Report is not a good-faith accounting of Harvard on race. Harvard has done more to advance Black intellectual and professional life than any other institution in the United States. Only Howard surpasses Harvard, although the competition between the institutions is keen. The generations of racial good have been discounted and ignored in service of the case for reparations for American slavery.

The beast of reparations for slavery refuses to die.