One hundred and fifty three years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the United States remains mired in a debate about how to relate and judge the reality and consequences of American slavery. The Black Lives Matter movement, ongoing racial discrimination and recent investigations of institutional ties to the slave trade, have once again placed in focus the unfinished work of post-civil war efforts to ensure the inclusion of slave descendants into mainstream civic and economic life.

This lecture will discuss recent truth and reconciliation efforts and showcase examples of how US universities are engaging with renewed activism, that is insisting that all institutions come to terms with legacies of injustice.