Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery Initiative Announces New Memorial Committee Co-Chairs

Faculty of Arts and Sciences chief campus curator Brenda Tindal and Graduate School of Design professor Eric Höweler will serve as the new co-chairs of Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery Memorial Project, assuming leadership of the effort more than three months after the former co-chairs suddenly resigned from their roles.

English professor Tracy K. Smith ’94 and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts Director Dan I. Byers were initially appointed to lead the project, but they announced their departures in a scathing resignation letter to University leadership and expressed concern that the project was being rushed by senior administrators.

The University also announced on Thursday the formation of a new advisory council to support the further implementation of the Legacy of Slavery initiative. The council will include some of Harvard’s most prominent faculty members, including several professors who served on the initial Legacy of Slavery implementation committee.

Harvard University President Alan M. Garber ’76 said in a statement that “engaging in reparative work requires a substantial, sustained effort.”

“Over the last two years, across the University and in conjunction with community and HBCU partners, we have laid a strong foundation,” Garber added. “Now, as we enter this next phase, we will proceed with curiosity and humility, confident in what we have learned and eager to learn more so that our ongoing work has the greatest impact.”

The Memorial Project is a part of the Legacy of Slavery presidential initiative to research and address the University’s historical ties to slavery, which is guided by seven recommendations. The Memorial Project’s committee, created in 2023, was formed to carry out one of these recommendations — building a memorial on Harvard’s campus that commemorates those who were enslaved by Harvard affiliates and labored for the University’s development.

Tindal has experience working as a member of the International African American Museum’s curatorial team. Höweler, who also is the program director of the Master of Architecture I program, has previously served as part of the design team of a similar project at the University of Virginia, called the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers.

Less than a month after Smith and Byers resigned, the Legacy of Slavery Executive Director Roeshana Moore-Evans also announced her resignation from the project, without providing reasoning for her departure. Moore-Evans was one of the first members on the initiative's leadership, joining in December 2022.

Though Byers resigned as a co-chair, he will still remain as a member of the memorial committee. Smith, however, will not remain on the committee.

The announcement of Tindal and Höweler as co-chairs is the University’s first public announcement regarding the project since Smith and Byers resigned from their roles.

In addition to the appointments of Tindal and Höweler, the University’s newly-formed advisory council will support the implementation of the Legacy of Slavery initiative more broadly.

The Advisory Council will build on previous efforts of the Legacy of Slavery initiative such as the DuBois Scholars program and the initiative's $2 million grant program for organizations that address issues stemming from the legacy of slavery in the local community.

“Members of the Advisory Council have personally been deeply invested for many years in advancing the work of addressing the legacy of slavery and will advise on ways we can continue to engage and collaborate with a broad set of stakeholders inside and outside the University,” said Vice Provost for Special Projects Sara Bleich.

“Their insights, perspectives and experience will help us envision our next chapter of this work in ways that fulfill the commitment behind the H&LS recommendations,” she added.

In her experience working for the International African American Museum, Tindal said that building community “is a generative and rewarding facet of placemaking and cultural work, but it is also one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

“We need to build trust with the University community, descendant communities, and those with deep affinities and connections to the stories we want to shepherd as part of this process,” Tindal said.

Höweler said that, while working to build a memorial at the University of Virginia, the design team was “able to steer the work toward a design that could bring people together. There’s a certain amount of groundwork that needs to be done first.”

In their resignation letter, first reported by The Crimson in June, Smith and Byers wrote that their reason for resigning as co-chairs was due to the University’s “prioritization of speed and end-results” rather than “a community-wide process of dialogue and collaboration.”

Smith and Byers added that they were pushed “by the Office of the Vice Provost to delay and dilute” essential efforts to the project such as forming “genuine and durable relationships with descendant communities.”

Currently, the committee’s main task is commissioning artists to design the memorial. In the project’s “Request for Qualifications” document that was posted last December, a deadline of Feb. 20 was given for artist submissions.

The committee, however, ended up pushing back the timeline.

The Memorial Committee wrote in an email obtained by The Crimson that this delay was in order “to ensure adequate time and care is given to collecting this vital community input.”

In their resignation letter, Smith and Byers wrote “that the necessary conditions for the work of memorialization, as agreed upon by committee members, are not yet manifest at the University.”

“It remains possible to complete the work of memorialization holistically,” they wrote. “If the University leadership wishes to see the Committee's work move faster, it must concentrate on doing the hard work of supporting the on-the-ground and in-the-community work of building trust and respect.”

Though the timeline for the Memorial Project still remains unclear, Tindal and Höweler as new co-chairs provides fresh leadership for the committee to move forward.

“We must enact an engagement effort that adequately prepares our campus and considers a broad spectrum of voices and insights within and beyond our University community,” Tindal said. “This process is deeply important and will take time.”

—Staff writer Neeraja S. Kumar can be reached at neeraja.kumar@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Annabel M. Yu can be reached at annabel.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @annabelmyu.