Gleaming in the Shadow of Slavery: A Conversation with Descendants of African Americans of Old Yale

The Yale and Slavery Research Project began in October 2020 with the mission of understanding the history of the university in relation to those “who actively promoted slavery, anti-Black racism, and other forms of exploitation,” as Yale President Peter Salovey noted. The project also is investigating the university’s connections to antislavery movements and the social forces that worked to undermine and dismantle slavery and racist ideologies. This panel discussion will explore lineages of families of early African-American staff and students at Yale. Through this program, we hope to give voice to African American descendants of Old Yale who lived in a world with living or recent experiences and memories of slavery. Sponsored by the Yale and Slavery Research Project; the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at the MacMillan Center at Yale; and Dixwell Congregational Church, UCC

Introductions: David W. Blight, Chair, Yale & Slavery Working Group, Director, Gilder Lehrman Center, and Sterling Professor of History, Yale University

Moderator: Crystal Feimster, Associate Professor of African American Studies, History, and of American Studies, Yale University and Member, Yale and Slavery Working Group

Panelists: Newman Baker Jamie Weems Charles Warner, Jr. Dr. Rebecca Motley Valerie Rooks Jamie Weems