Faculty group presses University of Georgia on its slavery history

Related Link UGA History Department Protest

When faculty and administrators drive in to their jobs at the University of Georgia’s Baldwin Hall, they’re driving over the graves of slaves or former slaves.

But that’s just one part of a bigger issue a UGA faculty group is wrestling with as it considers how the university should confront and acknowledge slavery in its history, and whether UGA has followed through on promises made earlier, when remains from 105 graves were removed from the Baldwin site and reburied off campus. Other graves remain beneath the pavement beside the building, UGA anthropologists have found.

The group, the Faculty Senate of UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, hasn’t taken any official steps on such concerns, but UGA’s response — or lack of it — was the main item on the agenda as the group met Tuesday.

Representatives of the UGA anthropology department — ironically located in Baldwin — say the university did not act responsibly or ethically in its handling of the expansion, and brought their concerns to the Faculty Senate in February.

Workers preparing for an expansion and renovation of 1930s-era Baldwin discovered the first remains as they began to dig near the building in November 2015. UGA called in an archaeological firm, Southeastern Archaeological Services, as it became evident there were more remains, and soon issued a news release saying the remains of up to 27 people had been unearthed and removed.