NEW SCHOOL PRESIDENT IS HOUSE-CENTRIC Grappling With a Complex History

A recent discovery about Lawrenceville’s past shared with students in April

Promising to rejuvenate School spirit through House life, Bryce Langdon ’24 was elected by Lawrentians as their student body president for the 2023-24 school year. He succeeds Andrew Boanoh ’23 as the head of student government at Lawrenceville.

“At the top is being in the House, being in the Dickinson House. We won House Olympics this past year, and that was an unbelievable moment,”

Langdon said when asked by L10 News anchor Maggie Blundin ’24 what the best part of his experience at the School has been. “Being in the House, late-night common room with friends, playing ping-pong, feeds with your friends on Saturday night … those are the moments that have been the best at Lawrenceville for me.”

Langdon’s framing of those smaller, more informal elements of student life at its most consequential serves as a lens into his larger concept of elevating the experience for all students.

“A lot of my platform focuses on revitalizing School spirit and our social life at Lawrenceville and a lot of that is through the House,” said Langdon, who will develop ways for House members to showcase their skills, talents, and House pride at all-School Events.

Langdon added that the properly balanced student experience makes room for friendships and the bonding that occurs through close, House-driven relationships.

“I want to make weekends engaging and fun,” he said.” I want to encourage everyone to stay on campus and really build an atmosphere where we feel we have a balance with academics, athletics, and a social life.”

Langdon is not the first member of his family to earn the title of president in an educational setting. His grandfather, George D. Langdon Jr. GP’24, was the 12th president of Colgate University, from 1978-88. n

Students gathered in the Kirby Arts Center in April to learn a previously unreported history involving Lawrenceville’s founder, Rev. Isaac Van Arsdale Brown, that complicates the story of the School’s first head.

After recent research by Jacqi Haun, senior archives librarian of the Stephan Archives in Bunn Library, and based on newly available archival information in New Jersey, it seems apparent that at one point in time, Brown held in slavery a young woman by the name of Elsey. She was manumitted at age 21 by Brown in 1822, 12 years after the School’s founding. By the 1830 census, all Black people residing on the Lawrenceville Academy campus were free. It is unknown how many other enslaved people would have been in the Brown household prior to 1830, or their lived experiences.

“As with many tellings of history, this story is complex,” Head of School Steve Murray H’54 ’55 ’65 ’16 P’16 ’21 wrote to parents and guardians of current students in April. Murray explained that Brown was a founder of the American Colonization Society, which promoted the idea that while enslaved people should be freed, Black and White people could not live together after emancipation.

Brown consequently supported the “repatriation” of freed Black people to Africa, a settler colonial mission that ultimately would result in the founding of Liberia. In 1858, Brown published “Slavery Irreconcilable With Christianity and Sound Reason,” arguing that slaveholding was a sin and declaring his strong belief in the basic equality of all races. Nonetheless, he remained firm in his belief that the institution of slavery had had such a damaging impact on American social relations that a multiracial society was not tenable at that time.

“What is clear is that our information on Rev. Brown and Elsey is incomplete and preliminary at best,” Murray wrote, “and there are aspects we may never be able to fully ascertain, but our work to understand the full context of the School’s history – and to facilitate community conversations around the nuances and complexities of this history – will continue.”

As part of the School Meeting, students also screened Part One of the PBS documentary The Price of Silence, which examines the history of slavery in New Jersey and the ways in which it contributed to concentrations of wealth in the state.

In his letter to parents and guardians, Murray underscored the many positive elements of Lawrenceville’s history but asserted that the School is committed to a full telling of this history through multiple lenses.

“For several years, our archivists have been researching and documenting the history of the land on which campus was built, as well as of the enslaved people who lived among these 700 acres,” he wrote. “It is our belief that these efforts will support our continued endeavor to prepare our students to ask critical questions, to engage in thoughtful discussion, and to form their own understanding of our School and its complex history.”

GATES

3

1. There were ten pairs of twins enrolled at Lawrenceville during the 2022-23 academic year.

2. Craftsman

Walter Whiteley ’67 is fashioning a piece of furniture for the home of former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, news relayed to The Lawrentian by photographer Dan Z. Johnson, who was shooting Walter for “Take This Job and Love It.”

3. John Burrell ’65 set a new Ultra Cycling record for his age group in the 100 km last September.