Dear President Morehead,

We, the undersigned members of the Athens community, including University of Georgia staff, faculty, and students; Athens organizations; elected officials; and community stakeholders write with deep frustration over your administration’s grossly inadequate response to collective requests that UGA recognize and redress its legacy of slavery in concrete ways.

When the most recent remains of enslaved people were uncovered during the Baldwin Hall expansion project in 2015, we in the Athens community and at the University of Georgia were presented with a significant opportunity to reflect on the University’s legacy of slavery, set a plan for reparations, and heal collectively. Now, over three years later, it saddens us to look back and see that instead of taking advantage of this opportunity, your administration restricted input from the Black community, resisted meaningful proposals for repair, and neglected the University’s history of slavery.

When it was announced that the remains belonged to people of African descent, many Black community members went into a grieving period. Fred Smith, Sr. and other community members requested that the reburial of the remains be open to the public so that he and others could be a part of the solemn moment. Instead, your administration facilitated a secret, closed reburial. Linda Davis requested that the remains be reburied in a historically Black cemetery with their descendants. Instead, your administration reburied them at Oconee Hill, a historically White cemetery with a record of abusing Black graves. Alvin Sheats requested that the University grant reparational scholarships for descendants of slaves that worked at UGA and for Black Athenian high school students. You responded by saying that the University does enough for Black students. The denial of these thoughtful requests displays a deep and troubling disregard for the community that was most impacted by the reburial.

Faculty and students experienced administrative pushback for similar requests. UGA faculty proposed a Center on Slavery to study, recognize and exhibit the University’s history of slavery. Vice President of Research David Lee said that it was not relevant and that it was “beyond the scope of resources.” The UGA Student Government Association passed a resolution to call for a monument on north campus "dedicated to all enslaved peoples held and employed by the University of Georgia.” UGA administrators and advisors pressured student leaders not to pass it, and the outgoing SGA president vetoed the resolution on his last day in office.

Despite your administration’s continued efforts to literally and figuratively bury the University’s legacy of slavery, the current social and economic conditions in Athens make this legacy impossible to ignore. This University was built by enslaved people, both in terms of labor and in terms of capital leverage. Today, as the largest employer in Athens, UGA plays no small role in our community’s 38% poverty rate. While Black people were once enslaved to cook, clean, and maintain the University of Georgia for no wages, now Black people cook, clean, and maintain the University for poverty wages. The truth of this lasting legacy is distorted on campus. While over 20 slave owners and segregationists are honored with buildings, former workers like Lucius Holsey, Dick Cary, Davy Hull, and Sam Watkins, to name a few - are invisible on campus.

Only a thorough accounting of UGA’s participation in the institution of slavery and concrete actions to repair the ongoing damage caused by slavery can begin to make our community whole. It is past time for your administration to act on the requests of its community and use its institutional power as Georgia’s flagship university to make positive social change in our city. This means standing up to the Board of Regents, educating donors, and advocating for the redress this community deserves.

We call on UGA to fund and celebrate efforts to recognize and redress its full history in three specific ways:

Issue a public statement taking responsibility for UGA’s role in white supremacy and fully fund the faculty-proposed Center on Slavery as a first step toward researching and telling the whole story of UGA’s role in slavery and Black oppression, a legacy which persists to this day.

Guarantee full-tuition, all-fees-included scholarships for descendants of the enslaved people who worked on UGA’s campus and for every African-American student who graduates from a public high school in Athens as a first step toward redressing the longstanding reparational debt that UGA owes to the African-American community and the local public schools in Athens.

Implement wages of at least $15/hour for all full-time and part-time/temporary UGA employees as a first step toward sufficiently supporting workers, especially Black workers who are disproportionately underpaid at UGA. As the largest employer in Athens and the flagship university in Georgia, UGA sets a standard for wages across the community and the state. The current inadequate wages fuel poverty in Athens’ Black communities, and UGA must do more to address the massive racial wealth gap.

These demands chart a course for UGA to confront and take responsibility for its complicity in slavery and the enduring harm it inflicts on Black community members, staff, faculty, and students today.

We, the undersigned, stand united in these demands until they are met, and we will continue to fight until we achieve full recognition and redress for this legacy of harm.

With that, we'd like to formally invite President Morehead and his fellow administrators to publicly respond to these three requests on April 24th, when we will be holding a community Town Hall. Specific time and location is TBD. We will send an official email invite to president@uga.edu.

Community and Student Organizations
Athens NAACP
Economic Justice Coalition
Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement
Athens For Everyone
United Campus Workers of Georgia
Dignidad Inmigrante En Athens
Young Democratic Socialists of America in Athens
Undocumented Student Alliance
Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, UGA Chapter
Students for Justice in Palestine, UGA Chapter

Public Officials
Mariah Parker, Athens-Clarke County District 2 Commissioner
Melissa Link, Athens-Clarke County District 3 Commissioner
Tim Denson, Athens-Clarke County District 5 Commissioner
Dr. LaKeisha Gantt, Athens-Clarke County District 7 School Board Member
Dr. Tawana Mattox, Athens-Clarke County District 9 School Board Member