Princeton Theological Seminary Students Demand Reparations for School’s History With Slavery

The Association of Black Seminarians, a student group at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, has started a petition calling for their school to pay reparations for the seminary’s history with slavery. Currently, about 15 percent of the seminary’s student body is Black.

According to the report, even though the institution never used slave labor, many of the seminary’s founders personally owned slaves. The report states that 15 percent of the school’s income before the Civil War came from slaveholders. The authors suggest that as much as 40 percent of the institution’s revenues could have come from slavery considering that many of the school’s donors profited, in one way or another, from slavery. Additionally, the report also notes that a group of faculty and students from Princeton Theological Seminary were a part of a colonization movement that aimed to send freed slaves back to Africa because they believed the former slaves could not co-exist with Whites.

The association calls for the school to allocate 15 percent of its $968 million endowment “for redressing this historical injustice by January 1, 2020.” The organization suggests that the funds be used to give full tuition scholarships for Black students and to set aside 10 spaces for students from Libera and an additional 10 spaces for students from other West African nations.

“In the spirit of MOVING FORWARD,” the petition reads, “the ABS encourages the Board of Trustees and the Administration to follow the instructions of Leviticus 26:41 fully, in which the covenant people of God are called to make amends for the iniquity of their ancestors.”

Related Articles

2 COMMENTS

  1. Jah and Jahnes Love.

    I al very happy to lesrn that the Theology Studentd ati Princeton Univerwity’s have made these demands. I think that their research gallana short beacause they dn’t inclufe the thousands ofii Africans who fled and were brought to the Caribbean to Ayiti and Bahamas Firaansi edample. They deserve to benefit from this reparations. Blessed Love.

  2. The US has 50 million functional illiterates. These people are victims of bad pedagogy and a reckless, irresponsible Education Establishment. The whole phenomenon is summed up by Charlotte Iserbyt’s phrase “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.” These people earned less money than they should have. They probably suffered from low self-esteem and financial insecurity, They are surely due reparations. And this injustice is not from previous centuries but previous decades.

    A fascinating aspect is that nobody at Princeton has said a word of complaint..

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

California State University Sacramento Launches Black Honors College

Officially launching for the fall 2024 semester, the Black Honors College will support students from all backgrounds who study Black history, life, and culture by providing them with a specialized curriculum and mentoring opportunities.

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

In Memoriam: Norman B. Anderson, 1955-2024

Dr. Anderson was the assistant vice president for research and academic affairs at Florida State University at the time of his death. He had an extensive career in clinical psychology, which led him to become the first African American chief executive officer of the American Psychological Association.

Georgia State University Launches Program to Support Black Women in Tech

While Black women account for roughly 29 percent of the Georgia State University undergradaute student body, they represent only 10 percent of the university's computer science majors and 18 percent of the computer information systems majors.

Featured Jobs