In the fall of 2018, the Faculty Senate of The University of Alabama unanimously passed a resolution calling for the University to “establish a formal commission to investigate the history of race, slavery, and civil rights on our campus, to publicize and to share the results, and to make recommendations for a comprehensive and responsible plan for curating, teaching and promoting sustained dialogue on the history of The University of Alabama.”

In response to this resolution, the former UA Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion convened a task force in 2019. The task force consists of faculty, staff, and graduate students from various colleges with interest and expertise in the histories of slavery, race, civil rights and inclusion. Through a series of meetings from 2019 forward the task force held various teach-ins, created a research working group to focus on UA’s history pre-1865, hired postdoctoral researchers to examine UA’s connections to race and civil rights post-1865, joined the University of Virginia-led Consortium for Universities Studying Slavery. The task force continues its work.

Contact Us

The Task Force can be contacted by emailing legacies@ua.edu. We welcome all questions, suggestions, and feedback about the histories of Race, Slavery and Civil Rights at The University of Alabama. Please include your name and any information you wish to share and we will respond as quickly as possible.