Dive Brief:
- Brown University plans to dedicate a memorial acknowledging its role in, and benefits received from, the slave trade in the 1700s.
- The memorial includes a granite plaque and a 4.5-ton cast-iron sculpture of a giant, half-buried ball connected to giant links of a broken chain, the Providence Journal reports.
- Brown, which is 250 years old, is named after abolitionist Nicholas Brown Jr., but its founder and its first treasurer were slave owners, and members of the Brown family got rich in the slave trade.
Dive Insight:
Brown is dealing with issues from its history that are similar to those that schools from the South have grappled with. The memorial is located near University Hall, built in 1770 with the labor of at least three slaves. Brown will also open a new Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice next month.