The University of Bristol has decided against retitling its buildings that are named after people with links to the transatlantic slave trade, but has pledged £10m to help address racial inequalities over the next decade.
At the end of a year-long consultation, which centred on whether seven university buildings should be renamed, the university acknowledged not everyone would be pleased with the decision to retain the controversial associations.
It vowed to tell the university’s history “in an honest, open and transparent way” and promised “substantive action” to address broader issues of systemic racism and inequality in Bristol and beyond.
The university will, however, remove the dolphin insignia of the slave trader Edward Colston from the University of Bristol logo, which was designed in 2003. Colston’s statue in the city was toppled during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020.
The university said it had received no funding from Colston, who died nearly 200 years before its foundation. Two other families with links to slavery – the Wills and Fry families – did provide substantial funding in the early 20th century that helped establish the university.
According to the university, the families did not own or traffic in enslaved people, but the products their predecessors dealt in, including tobacco, sugar and cocoa, were undoubtedly connected to enslaved labour. The Wills Memorial Building, which the university describes as “a true Bristol icon”, has been the focus of student protest in recent years.
