Growing up, it was no secret in Clay Westfall Mering’s house that his great-great grandfather had been a wealthy slave owner.
In fact, James S. Rollins, who is known today as the “founding father” of the University of Missouri, had as many as 36 slaves on his sprawling plantation.
Mering, 52, who works as an architect in Tucson, Ariz., hadn’t thought much about Rollins until he read in the newspaper that the Rev. Al Sharpton’s great-grandfather, Conrad Sharpton, was once owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Sen. Strom Thurmond’s great-great grandfather.
“That got me thinking about my own ancestry and slavery,” says Rollins. “I knew that I needed to do something.”
In an effort to come to terms with his great-great grandfather’s involvement in slavery, Mering announced that he was donating $25,000 to the University of Missouri’s Black studies department for the creation of the James S. Rollins Slavery Atonement Fund.
The permanently endowed fund, which was finalized late last year, was created to support student and faculty research on topics related to slavery and attendance at conferences and seminars that examine the impact and effects of slavery in the United States.
