Recently, we reported that the University of Chicago finally honored the first African American woman to receive a doctorate degree from the institution and now it is in the news for another racially-based reason.

According to the Chicago Crusader, National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America is calling on the city to void all contracts with the university until it obeys the 2002 Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinance that requires businesses to disclose all records in connection with slavery.

Earlier this year, the Reparations at UChicago Working Group published a paper that stated the university's founding came from enslavement profits.

“Like so many other venerable American institutions, the University of Chicago is built on slavery,” read the report. “Hundreds of enslaved people lived and died on that [Douglass] plantation to make the University of Chicago, and its $7 billion endowment, possible. Reparations are long overdue.”

Though trustees recognize the school's founding date as 1890, many history students know that its actual origin is 1856, which is when a small Baptist college was formed before it grew and moved to its current location. A total of 142 slaves were sold for today's equivalent of $1.2 million to fund the move.

The report calls for “establishing an African American Studies department should be a no-brainer,” and making “a concerted effort to recruit and develop faculty of color while vigorously recruiting and mentoring underrepresented students to attend the university."

“This cannot be a question of what the university will do for black communities,” said the group's report. “It must be a function of what black communities demand as payment to forgive an unforgivable debt.”

Reparations at UChicago Working Group

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