several slavery-related exhibits at Brown this spring. / " title="'BOUND AND HEADED for America,' a detail from a painting by M. Chambon that is held by the John Carter Brown Library, which through the end of May is hosting two of several slavery-related exhibits at Brown this spring. /"/>PROVIDENCE – Brown University will raise a $10 million endowment for Providence schoolchildren, as part of its response to last fall’s report by the university’s Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, President Ruth J. Simmons announced Saturday.
The money, to be called The Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence, will be invested within Brown’s own endowment. At $10 million, the fund could provide as much as half a million dollars per year, Simmons said; expenditures will be allocated by the university with input from the city superintendent of schools.
In addition, Simmons said, the university will provide as many as 10 new Urban Education Fellows per year. These fellows will be graduate students who agree to serve at least three years in Providence-area schools after they earn a master of arts in teaching or urban education policy at Brown. In exchange, the university will pay their tuition.
“One of the clearest messages in the Slavery and Justice Report is that institutions of higher education must take a greater interest in the health of their local communities, especially kindergarten through 12th-grade education,” Simmons said. “Lack of access to a good education, particularly for urban schoolchildren, is one of the most pervasive and pernicious social problems of our time.”
The Slavery and Justice Report – a three-year research and public affairs project – details the history of slavery and slave trading in Rhode Island and elsewhere in New England, and the involvement of some of the university’s early benefactors.
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, himself a Brown alumn, today commended both Simmons and the university “for relentlessly pursuing the truth about the role of slavery in Brown’s history and for responding boldly and affirmatively with this major committment.”
Additional information is available at www.brown.edu.
