In June 2020, The Collegian published a letter to the reader that stated: “The Collegian will actively report on discrimination and hate that affects our campus, no matter what. ... Every member of the UR community deserves to be heard and deserves to be represented, not just those from majority groups.” The Collegian stands by this mission, and we will continue to represent every voice in our community with a new initiative: The Westham Project.
During the 2020-21 academic year, The Collegian will complete a reporting project on the Westham burial ground as a part of the Poynter Institute’s College Media Project. Our goals for this project are to contextualize the history of the land UR occupies, specifically relating to knowledge of the land’s connections to the enslavement of Black people, and investigate the ways that racism and segregation at UR and in the city of Richmond have impacted Black students, faculty, staff and community members since UR’s founding in 1830.
In 2020, UR has grappled with racist graffiti on students’ dorm doors, a movement to abolish Panhellenic and Interfraternity council greek life because of their discriminatory practices, and the rescinding of an incoming first-year’s offer of admission because of his racist comments. The Princeton Review ranked UR 10th in colleges with little race and class interaction in its 2021, an improvement from last year’s fourth place ranking.
President Ronald Crutcher has spoken openly about the racist graffiti at UR, as well as racist images showing a Black man surrounded by members of a fraternity wearing Ku Klux Klan robes at UR in the 1980s. Crutcher recently announced that he will be stepping down from his current role no later than July 2022, giving the Presidential Search Committee ample time to fill his position.
Our campus community has responded to these instances of hate with student-led activism to fight racism, including initiatives to host an Equity Summit, facilitate discussions about race and the identities of marginalized groups, propose the creation of an Africana studies department and launch Instagram accounts to provide platforms to students of color. Administration issued a report and recommendations to support diversity, equity and inclusion on campus.
UR is acknowledging many of the challenges minority students face today. In doing so, the community must consider how the issues our campus faces now have stemmed from a history of racism and segregation at UR. By shedding light on the human bondage that built the land our campus occupies, The Collegian will help the community interrogate the ways racism and xenophobia exist within our community today.
On July 29, 2019, The Collegian reported on the discovery of documentary evidence that suggests a burial ground of enslaved people on UR’s campus, which was a plantation prior to 1865. The presence of the burial ground, known as the Westham Burying Ground, has implications about UR’s past and present that require care and attention from our community.
Crutcher commissioned an initiative to research the history of the land UR now occupies, including the Burial Ground Memorialization Committee and a report on the Westham Burying Ground completed by Shelby Driskill, a UR graduate student; Lauranett Lee, a public history consultant; Dywana Saunders, a research and digitization associate for Boatwright Memorial Library; and Douglas Broome, a Geographic Information Systems specialist and senior programmer at UR.
Saunders began research for the Gambles Mill Project in 2016, according to the July 29 Collegian article. Saunders said she had started learning of the land’s history and had begun to find references to Green’s plantation as well as burial grounds on it and Driskill’s research led to the discovery of a report by H.V. Hubbard, written on Jan. 14, 1902, which describes a burying ground on UR’s campus, according to the article.
The Collegian staff will strive toward comprehensiveness and accuracy in telling UR’s history. However, we understand that many of the details of the lives that were impacted by this history may not be available, including those of the people interred at the Westham burial ground.
This fall, The Collegian staff intends to publish the first two parts of The Westham Project. The first part will explore what we know about the Westham burial ground, including how our community responded to its discovery. The second part will explore memorialization efforts and how to best honor this ground and the people beneath. The Collegian will continue The Westham Project through spring 2021.
The Collegian will work with the campus community to complete The Westham Project. This is a decision fueled by the desire to include voices from all parts of the campus community in this conversation -- including voices that may not be heard on Collegian staff. If you are interested in joining this project please reach out to westhamproject@gmail.com.