Letter from Alumni - Holding EHS Accountable

After the Black at EHS account got recognized by the administration. Episcopal released a mediocre response to the experiences of their students and the social and racial movements happening in the world at that time. This 'response' sparked frustration from lots of alumni, parents, and students which then led to a very rigid letter being written addressing all of the things Episcopal needs to change. It should be noted that within 48 hours of the response letter being released 283 alumni signed the letter. The alumni and some current students range from 1955 to the current senior class of 2023.

This letter was the very first time, a group of black faculty, alumni, and students rose up together to challenge the ways Episcopal was handling things. In the letter, there were specific demands for change to be done for Episcopal.

Below is the letter that was sent to the administration:

The Letter

June 9, 2020

To whom it may concern in the administration of Episcopal High School:

As the Episcopal High School community, we appreciate the School’s continued efforts to combat racism and educate its students on past and present issues of racial injustice. However, we were dissatisfied by the statements released by the School. These statements neglected to acknowledge Episcopal’s role in upholding institutional racism. The Episcopal Honor Code teaches us to never lie and, in that spirit, we want to be fully honest: Episcopal needs to do more to ensure permanent change.

Specifically, this letter will focus on the experiences of Black alumni and the ways in which EHS can reconcile with its history of Black oppression. We cannot pride ourselves on being a historic institution if we do not acknowledge the direct roles slavery and racial injustice have played in our School’s history.

The School did a disservice to its Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) alumni by releasing a statement about the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery without directly acknowledging both the Black Lives Matter movement and Episcopal's painful past, and without explicitly committing itself to ending police brutality and white supremacy. Episcopal’s mission statement declares that it is the School’s aim to prepare young people to lead with “intellectual and moral courage.” The administration has an opportunity to lead by example and display that courage right now.

As an educational institution, Episcopal shapes the young minds of future leaders and the School has the responsibility to make that future more equitable.

We acknowledge that the School has taken meaningful action in recent years to practice active anti-racism. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Symposiums, the commemoration of our fiftieth anniversary since racial integration, the movement of the Civil War plaque in Pendleton Hall, and the addition of more diverse voices to our Board of Trustees were positive steps forward. However, in order for EHS to live up to its mission statement and honor the Black students, alumni, staff, and faculty members who are a part of our community, more must be done.

While this list is by no means exhaustive, we include below a number of actions Episcopal High School should take. We expect action to be taken promptly, in the coming year.

Release a statement acknowledging the role our school has played in slavery and the oppression of people of color, and Black people more specifically. Episcopal must acknowledge their role in the Civil War and their historical institutional support of slavery, white supremacy, segregation, and discrimination against Black Americans. The importance of a public statement must not be put aside.
Understand, acknowledge, and teach anti-racism. It is not just the job of the Office of Community and Equity, but rather the responsibility of each individual within the EHS community in order to make our community more welcoming and accepting.
Implement a plan to become an institution that is actively anti-racist (refer to “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi, who spoke at EHS in 2020) and supports current student organizations that celebrate diversity and inclusion. We also ask that Black students, faculty members, staff, and alumni be given the resources and support to lead and execute such a project if they so desire.
Provide EHS students, parents, Board of Trustees, alumni, faculty, and staff with anti-racist educational resources and implicit bias training.
Actively educate students and the community on our school’s distressing history. This should not be done in a large setting such as community meetings or chapel, where students can be easily disinterested. Historical revisionism for the sake of preserving reputation is morally reprehensible and does not align with the values put forth by our school.
Establish an accessible forum for students to report instances of racism and discriminatory practices on campus and have the infrastructure in place to respond to such reports in an empathetic and timely fashion.

One idea would be to provide pointed anti-racism and diversity, equity, and inclusion training for our monitors to hold students and faculty accountable.
Having the maroon mentor program as a place of guidance with bias and diversity training, as a source for students to learn and have mentorship on related issues.

Create the Reginald Burns Black Alumni Council, an official Black alumni network that provides each black Episcopal student with a black alumni mentor who can help them navigate the Episcopal experience from the black perspective. The RBC should be directly integrated with the black student population, as each black student should be matched upon arrival with an alumni mentor or group of mentors based on shared interests and general similarities. The goal of this mentorship program is to provide a four-year-plus support system for black students who inevitably face vastly different endeavors in comparison to the student body.
Donate to Black-run organizations and grassroots campaigns that actively fight against racism and police brutality as part of reparations for 181 years of oppression, and actively encourage others in the EHS community to do the same.
Actively encourage and recruit a more diverse faculty and staff. In order to have adequate representation and create a safe space for students, EHS must work to encourage and hire a more diverse faculty that is representative of the student body.
Publicize all of the school’s archives— including board minutes, head of school files, community letters, and student publications— from its integration process and complete a thorough report on all findings concerning segregation and racism.
Create a space for students to reflect and evaluate the aspects of their own lives that have benefited from or been detrimentally shaped by systemic racism and acknowledge when they themselves may have propagated such a system.

One example: students could write letters to themselves about their experiences with racism and anti-racism at the beginning of their EHS careers and reflect on the letters throughout the years until graduation.
Another example would be to create a venue for black students and students of color, such as the creation of a multicultural center to discuss their experience with racial issues on campus and make suggestions for change.

Incorporate more texts on Black history in both our English and History department’s curricula.

Include a mandatory unit in the US History curriculum that addresses the racial disparities that have always existed in the exercising of rights, the history of protest, and the voting process. This unit should also include EHS’ own history of our involvement in the institutions of slavery and the Confederacy. This should be done with an emphasis on these as ongoing issues and provide a historical framework for how the country has maintained these injustices in a systematic fashion.

We want a more nuanced, honest, and transparent dialogue about race and its role in the history and future of Episcopal High School to begin. Thank you for taking the time to read this. We look forward to reading your response.

The significance of this letter was to professionally call out the administration on their lack accountability. The list of probable demands embarked on the first ideas of change on this campus, and some of them are being used effectively today.