Rutgers has placed historical markers acknowledging the relationship between its existence and enslaved labor around several campuses, standing tall outside of Frelinghuysen Hall and Hardenbergh Hall on the College Avenue campus, the Livingston Student Center and the Wood Lawn Mansion on Douglass campuses since 2021.
New Rutgers historical markers will tell the dark side of university’s history
Updated Feb 23, 2021;
For more than half a century, Rutgers University students have unknowingly lived in a residence hall named after a man who owned slaves.
But soon, anyone who enters Hardenbergh Hall will be greeted by a historical marker explaining that Jacob Rusten Hardenbergh was more than just the university’s first president.
Rutgers announced its latest effort Tuesday to confront its ties to slavery and racial injustice: Four new historical markers that detail how the families of the university’s early benefactors made their fortunes through the slave economy.