Princeton Seminary Approves $27M In Reparations

PRINCETON, NJ — The Princeton Theological Seminary is setting aside a little more than $27 million in response to an historical audit that shows the seminary benefited from slavery.

A total of $27.6 million will be set aside to fund reparations in response to an audit of a 2018 report that shows the seminary invested in southern banks in the mid-19th century and received investments from donors who owned slaves, the seminary announced.

It didn’t own slaves, and no buildings were constructed using slave labor, according to the seminary. However, founding faculty and leaders have been found to have used slaves at some point in their lives, and several of the first professors and board members were deeply involved in a group that advocated sending free black people to Liberia.

“The Seminary’s ties to slavery are a part of our story. It is important to acknowledge that our founders were entangled with slavery and could not envision a fully integrated society,” Princeton Seminary President M. Craig Barnes said. “We are committed to telling the truth. We did not want to shy away from the uncomfortable part of our history and the difficult conversations that revealing the truth would produce.”

He called the seminary’s response “tangible action to write a new chapter in our story.” It is “the beginning of our community’s journey of repair as we seek to redress historic wrongs and to help the Seminary be more faithful to our mission as a school of the church, both now and in the years to come,” he said.

The plan is being implemented immediately and will run through 2024, according to the seminary. It includes offering 30 new scholarships valued at the cost of tuition plus $15,000, as well as five doctoral fellowships, to students who are descendants of slaves or from underrepresented groups.

Changes in curriculum includes a cross-cultural component, and every member of the seminary community will be educated on its history. It will also hire a full-time director for the Center for Black Church Studies and a new faculty member who will focus on African American experience and ecclesial life.

A committee will oversee implementation of the plan. The 2018 report was the result of a two-year examination of the seminary’s historical ties to slavery, commissioned by Barnes in spring 2016 after years of student activism on the issue.

Last month, the Virginia Theological Seminary set up a $1.7 million fund for reparations, according to The Washington Post. Earlier this year, Georgetown University students voted in favor of paying reparations to 272 slaves sold by the university, according to Inside Higher Ed.