Princeton Theological Seminary will set aside more than $25 million to pay reparations for its historical ties to slavery, thrusting the seminary to the forefront of a national debate over how America’s should reconcile with its slave-owning past.
Calling the payments an act of repentance, President M. Craig Barnes said in a statement Friday the seminary is “committed to telling the truth,” even though the seminary itself never owned slaves.
Founded in 1812, the seminary benefited from the slave economy through investments in Southern banks and from donors who profited from slavery. Its founding faculty and leaders used slave labor during their lifetime and some advocated for sending free black men and women to Liberia, according the seminary.
“The Seminary’s ties to slavery are a part of our story,” Barnes said. “It is important to acknowledge that our founders were entangled with slavery and could not envision a fully integrated society… We did not want to shy away from the uncomfortable part of our history and the difficult conversations that revealing the truth would produce.”
The seminary believes the $27.6 million amount is the most any college has pledged to pay through reparations, said Anne Stewart, vice president for external relations.
The payments will include offering 30 new scholarships, valued at the cost of tuition plus $15,000, for students who are descendants from slaves or from underrepresented groups. The seminary, unaffiliated with Princeton University, will also designate five doctoral fellowships for students who are descendants from slaves and hire a full-time director for the Center for Black Church Studies, among other initiatives.
The seminary will reserve the money from its $1 billion endowment to sustain the initiatives in perpetuity to achieve generational change.
“We are taking tangible action to write a new chapter in our story,” Barnes said.
The decision comes amid mounting pressures on America’s oldest education institutions to uncover, acknowledge and potentially pay for their ties to slavery.
Georgetown University students voted this year raise their own tuition to pay reparations to descendants of 272 enslaved Africans who were sold by Jesuits who ran the university. The Virginia Theological Seminary last month created a $1.7 million fund for reparations.
In New Jersey, both Rutgers and Princeton universities have commissioned and published reports detailing their historical ties to slavery, though they stopped short of paying reparations.
At the seminary, black seminarians had launched a petition calling for reparations.
Stewart said the decision was guided by the school’s theological mission and the framework of confession and repentance.
“The religious context had everything to do with it,” she said. “Repentance is not just about talk. It’s about action.”
Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
https://www.nj.com/news/2019/10/princeton-seminary-will-pay-27m-in-slavery-reparations.html
“At the seminary, black seminarians had launched a petition calling for reparations.”
OH… so it’s a BLACK THING, is it?
F$&KING GREEDY NIGGERS WANTING MORE FREE SH#T FROM THE EVIL WHITE MAN.
F$&K YOU NIGGER C#&KSUCKERS… WAY MORE WHITE SLAVES WERE MISTREATED & KILLED (some by BLACK SLAVE OWNERS, @ssholes!) THAN BLACKS, SO F$&K YOUR SNIVELING & WHINING… I GOT NO F$&KING SYMPATHY FOR YOU SORRY @SS B#TCHES!!!!! 😡
GO BACK TO AFRICA!!!
Easy on the bp #1. 🙂
I agree with your comment.
I think this is being pushed on blacks. I do not think the call for reparations originated with them. It’s more globalization and its need to make rich those it would homogenize. It’s also to guilt whitey. Jus’ my take.
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My comment wasn’t aimed at ALL black people, galen.
Specifically, for those ignorant @sswipes who think they’re OWED something by white people when (as stated previously), white slaves were FAR worse off than their black counterparts.
If you’ve never read Michael Hoffman’s ‘They Were White, And They Were Slaves’, I highly recommend it.
I understand, #1. I just think there’s real big money behind this making it look like we owe something for what we ourselves didn’t do. And it’s more of their global communism. They push money here and there to bring about just the right amount of compliance and subservience —> to them.
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Blacks had black slaves as well, let’s not forget that. Just like today, I am a white slave by definition, where is mine?
Jeez….
What a bunch of race baiting silliness.
Well …. like any other fictional fake article news.
Here’s a good race baiting article title to tag onto it.
” Niggers Buy Guns With 27 Million In Reparations “.
“Blame Jews for Slavery and To Kill Whitey and Make American Great Again”.
Yeah…. I guess I’d be a little more concerned with that.
Anyway…..
Don’t get your tampons in a wad and twisted.
They’ll see that settlement alright…. fk….. wlhy not just through onto the national debt.
21 trillion + 27 million….
Oh…, don’t worry it’ll get paid real quick.
Plus …, this should be kept on the down low…
Cause if them mexicans know about it to much they’ll want some fking money too.
Then we’ll really be fked.
WHY WOULD ANYONE CALLING THEMSELVES “CHRISTIAN” ENTER A SEMINARY?
SO THEY CAN BECOME PART AND PARCEL TO THE FALSE PROPHET/
I HAVE READ SOME OF THEIR LESSONS. I WAS UNIMPRESSED.
SIGGY FRAUD DID A BETTER JOB OF “SAVING MANKIND” THAN THE FAKE “CHEESUS” SPOKEN OF BY SOME OF THESE TREACHERLINGS…..
This is simpley a devide and conquer tactic. Something to keep us fighting one another.
Trenchers know this.
That sh#t won’t fly here.
Does anyone here know the significance of the numbers 11:11?
According to a comment posted on my friend’s Fakebook page, all the clocks in the Joker movie are set to 11:11, and there are screenshots of 3 different clocks set at that time.
We know how they love to broadcast their evil intentions in the movies… for those astute enough to decipher the clues.
Well it seems the obvious answer would be that 3 times 11:11 would be “666”. Just my take on it
Neo’s birthdate on his driver’s license was 9/11 2001.
That move was released in ’99.
Not sure about the meaning of 11:11. Vague memories from hippy days tell me it has some kind of spiritual significance. But I’m glad you gave us a heads up to be more watchful on that day. They usual allude to what they might do or when they might do it. On a side note… When I happen to catch my over-sized digital clock at 11:11 somehow it feels a bit strange. Now I have to figure how Swifty came up with 666.
🙂
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Its been a long day Galen, Im really tired. After looking again I think I missed something in translation or maybe I was using common core math. Lol
LOL
Dear Mr. Lomax
In the arranging of facts
Two plus two is four
unless you walk through the other door
where one is seven
and hell is heaven
At least we know what we’re fighting for
🙂
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