Family demands refund of 132-year-old gift to University of Richmond
A family is asking the University of Richmond to return their ancestors’ 1890 donation, with interest, after the university removed their relative’s name from its law school, citing his ownership of enslaved people, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
The descendants of T.C. Williams, Sr. (1831–1889) has asked the university for $51 million—calculated at 6 percent compound interest—as a refund for the memorial gift the family made to the law school in 1890. Williams attended Richmond College, was a Richmond College trustee from 1881 until his death in 1889, and was a benefactor of the institution. The law school had been called the T.C. Williams School of Law since 1920, but in 2022, the university removed his name from the school, citing recently located public records showing his ownership of enslaved people.
The family told the Times-Dispatch, however, that the university has not given them documentation of his ownership of enslaved people.
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