The Research

The Committee on Enslaved and Disenfranchised Populations in Rutgers History, consisting of faculty, staff, and student members from across the university, was formed to vigorously pursue the truth and examine the role that people of disadvantaged groups played in the founding and development of Rutgers University. The committee was also charged with making recommendations about how the university can best acknowledge their influences on our history. 

Under the direction of professors Deborah Gray White, Marisa Fuentes, and Camilla Townsend, undergraduate and graduate students embarked on the massive undertaking of piecing together the story of those lost from the pages of the university’s early history.

The Rutgers University Libraries Special Collections and University Archives contained a trove of documents that illuminated these stories, as did the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, whose church records were invaluable in the search. The researchers were also able to unearth new information in state and national archives in Trenton and Washington, D.C.

As the project continues with subsequent volumes, the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis is expanding and developing its research to map out the history as it relates to slavery and issues of race, moving us up to the present day of Rutgers University.  

Contributors and Researchers

View a list of editors and contributors to the Scarlet and Black Project.

Volume 1	Volume 2	Volume 3
Editors Marisa J. Fuentes Deborah Gray White	Editors Kendra Boyd Marisa J. Fuentes Deborah Gray White	Editors Miya Carey Marisa J. Fuentes Deborah Gray White
Contributors Beatrice J. Adams Shauni Armstead Jesse Bayker Christopher Blakely Kendra Boyd Miya Carey Kaisha Esty Marisa J. Fuentes Tracey Johnson Daniel Manuel Jamaica Salas Pujols Brenann Sutter Camilla Townsend Pamela Walker Deborah Gray White	Contributors Beatrice J. Adams Shauni Armstead Kendra Boyd Miya Carey Shari Cunningham Marisa J. Fuentes Tracey Johnson Eri Kitada Jerrad P. Pacatte Brenann Sutter Pamela Walker Deborah Gray White Meagan Wierda Caitlin Wiesner Joseph Williams	Contributors Beatrice J. Adams Miya Carey Lynda Dexheimer Kaisha Esty Whitney Fields Marisa J. Fuentes Ian Gavigan Tracey Johnson Joseph Kaplan Roberto Orozco Carie Rael Brooke Thomas Pamela Walker Deborah Gray White Meagan Wierda Joseph Williams