Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine “profited in both concrete and indirect ways from slavery,” according to a university-commissioned report released last month.

Founded as part of Hampden-Sydney College in 1838, it became an independent institution in 1854 known as the Medical College of Virginia (MCV). Tax lists and census data show that MCV owned or rented enslaved laborers who cooked, cleaned, did laundry, maintained buildings and even helped to procure bodies— primarily from African-American burial grounds.

“Although they rarely receive any mention in college records, these enslaved individuals played key roles in maintaining the institution,” New York University professor Peter J. Wosh wrote in the 74-page report. And they did so “within an institutional culture that denied their humanity.”

The report was commissioned by VCU following legislation in 2021 that required the five pre-Civil War public colleges to examine their historical involvement with slavery, to commemorate the lives of enslaved people and to develop programs that will benefit individuals and communities with connections to enslaved labor.

In a statement posted on Dec. 9, 2022, VCU president Michael Rao said that while the report’s findings were “expected, they remain harrowing and disturbing.” He went on to outline some of the ongoing efforts the university is undertaking to address past wrongs.

In 2020, the university began removing names and symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from its buildings and grounds, including last year’s renaming of the Department of African American Studies’ building to Gabriel’s House, in honor of an enslaved Richmond man who organized a rebellion in 1800 trying to end slavery in Virginia.

A special commission has been created to determine VCU’s next steps in further pursuing “healing and efforts at reconciliation.”