The Duke University Archives is developing multiple resources including onsite exhibits, listening sessions with students, and digital maps to investigate the institution involvement with slavery and 19th century racialized labor practices. Our aim is to foster reckoning, conversation, and space for imagining how the University might move forward with its commitment to anti-racism (DEI) given its troubled past.

Naomi Etsehiywot, Graduate Research Assistant

Valerie Gillispie, Duke University Archivist

At the Duke University Archives we are embarking on a deep dive into the early stakeholders of the institution now known as Duke University, to make clear some of the ways the institution benefitted from enslaved labor and inequitable labor practices. We are developing tools and physical sites including spaces for conversation, digital humanities modules, and public history installations for engaging the wider community in this research and questioning.

Coming soon