fbpx
Leadership

A message from the chancellor: Honestly reckoning with our past

"We don’t get to choose our past, but we are responsible for reckoning with it and deciding how to move forward."

South Building with UNC Banners

Dear Carolina Community,

In two weeks, Carolina will host the spring session of the Universities Studying Slavery Conference. I’ll be there, and I hope many of you can be, too. This gathering of scholars from across the world is unique not just for the topics it elevates but for the open invitation to the whole community. Everyone at Carolina, and those beyond campus who care about our shared history and our path forward, are invited to participate and contribute.

Carolina is one of the earliest members of this consortium, which was founded in 2015 at the University of Virginia. We all share a commitment to “truth-telling educational projects” as we come to terms with the difficult and uncomfortable parts of our history.

I am a firm believer that an honest rendering of our past shouldn’t be viewed as divisive or controversial, but seen as a core part of our mission to seek truth and bring valuable knowledge to light. “I think for UNC-Chapel Hill to lead this conversation itself is healing,” explains Dr. Pat Parker, co-chair of the University’s History, Race and a Way Forward commission. “It is necessary work.”

Carolina has shown a commitment to this work for a long time. You see it in the extraordinary archives and oral histories available at Wilson Library. You see it in the discoveries of historians, political scientists, archeologists and community advocates who have broadened our understanding of the lives of enslaved people and slavery’s long legacy in our society. You see it in the incredible speakers who come to our campus, including the inaugural Dr. Genna Rae McNeil Endowed Black History Month Lecture that featured Dr. Vincent Brown, a noted scholar, historian and film maker with unique explorations into the nature of historical slavery. You see it in the creative brilliance of artists like Rhiannon Giddens, working with Carolina Performing Arts and Southern Futures to give forgotten stories the prominence they deserve.

We don’t get to choose our past, but we are responsible for reckoning with it and deciding how to move forward. Those decisions can, and must, be a source of pride for our University.

Sincerely,

Kevin M. Guskiewicz
Chancellor