The University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice is preparing its final report, which will be delivered to President Ruth Simmons upon completion and then most likely unveiled to the public this spring, according to James Campbell, the chair of the committee.
The report, which will address the University's history and make recommendations for the future, is currently being drafted by a four-person subcommittee in collaboration with the full 15-person committee, said Campbell, associate professor of American civilization, Africana studies and history.
The main purpose of the report will be "to simply provide a full, truthful, forthright account of what we've learned," he said.
In a letter to the Brown community at the time of the committee's creation, Campbell wrote of the committee's mission: "If we can offer no pledge of a tidy resolution, we can promise a genuinely open-ended inquiry, intended to enable all of us, individually and collectively, to engage with complex historical and contemporary questions in a reasoned, rigorous way."
The committee's report will present the results of this inquiry and will be structured around three main components - history, analysis and recommendations.
"Part of our task is a pretty straightforward one if you're a historian," Campbell said, referring to the creation of a comprehensive account of the University's historical tie to the slave trade.
The history has been compiled through the public events sponsored by the committee as well as research done by committee members and student assistants, he said. He added that the University has "incredible" resources relating to the Rhode Island slave trade and Brown's history.
The committee has also undertaken comparative historical analysis, looking at issues such as the Holocaust, Japanese internment during World War II and apartheid in South Africa.
Campbell also said that in keeping with the committee's charge, "There does have to be a section of the report that makes recommendations." This fact was "leaped on" when the committee was created, Campbell said, but Simmons was "explicit at the outset" that this investigation was not going to culminate in the University writing a check. She wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe in April 2004 stating, "That was never the intent nor will the payment of reparations be the outcome."
The recommendations in the report will focus primarily on Brown, because that is where they can have the most impact, said Seth Magaziner '06, a student on the committee. But Campbell said the committee and the process it has undertaken provides a model for other institutions trying to address these "awkward questions."
Campbell added, "I hope that our experience might show that ... doing this kind of investigation is not only possible but is also" in keeping with the mission of a university. He said similar processes have been initiated at other schools, including the University of North Carolina and Emory University. The latter's plan bears a distinct resemblance to Brown's, he said.
The committee hopes that the report will have an impact beyond academia. Campbell said the information will be presented on a "manageable scale," using "crisp, clear, non-technical language," in order to engage as wide an audience as possible.
The report is intended to be a resource for all who want to learn "more about chapters in our history that are sometimes neglected and sometimes little understood," Campbell said.
Formed by Simmons in Spring 2003, the committee's original charge included providing "factual information and critical perspectives that will deepen our understanding" of slavery's place in our history.
The committee's report will help fulfill its charge to apply what Campbell called old-fashioned academic inquiry to this contentious issue in an attempt "to suggest some of the ways we as a community ought to think about it."
