Harvard announced Tuesday that it would commit $100 million to correct its role in slavery as more US institutions offer reparations for historical injustices. Harvard said it would put the money into a fund to help address educational and social disparities leftover from the slave trade and racism.

The move follows an extensive internal review of the university’s role in slavery, which has been posted on its website. The 100-page report makes several recommendations on using the money, including improving educational opportunities for future generations of the community, honouring enslaved people through remembrance and research, and building partnerships with black colleges and universities.

It also recommends identifying and supporting direct descendants of Black and Native Americans who worked on Harvard campuses and were enslaved by former Harvard leaders. In a letter to students and staff, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow wrote: “Harvard has benefited from and in some ways perpetuated deeply unethical practices.”

“As such, I believe we have a moral responsibility to do what we can to address the continuing corrosive effects of these historical practices on individuals, Harvard, and our society,” he added. Harvard was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636. The report found that the Harvard staff, including four presidents, enslaved more than 70 people until the state outlawed slavery in 1783.

The report also found that the university “benefited from extensive financial ties to slavery,” including donations from slave traders. It said that from the mid-19th century to the 20th century, Harvard presidents and prominent professors promoted the science of race and eugenics and “conducted abusive ‘studies,’ including filming enslaved and enslaved humans.”

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Harvard’s announcement comes as US institutions grapple with how to make up for their role in slavery. Last year, leaders of the Jesuit Conference of Priests vowed to raise $100 million to benefit the descendants of the slaves it once owned. In 2019, students at Georgetown University approved a fund that will benefit descendants of slaves sold by elite Jesuit schools in the 1800s.