A woman has emerged victorious from a lengthy legal battle with Harvard over possession of two images of an enslaved father and daughter who she believes are her descendants. The daguerreotypes, believed to have been taken by a Harvard professor in 1850 as part of discredited study into Black racial “inferiority,” will be delivered along with images of five other enslaved people to the the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, the state where the individuals were enslaved. Tamara Lanier, who believes she is the descendant of the subjects, known only as “Renty Congo” and “Delia,” celebrated the victory and expressed relief that they may now be treated with dignity. “I have been at odds with Harvard over the custody and care of my enslaved ancestors, and now I can rest assured that my enslaved ancestors will be traveling to a new home,” the New York Times reported her saying. “They will be returning to their home state where this all began, and they will be placed in an institution that can celebrate their humanity.” Lanier called the ruling “a reckoning for all museums and institutions that currently hold plundered property,” while civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump hailed the “precedent-setting” verdict and said: “It does leave a bright trail for not just us but the next generation of civil rights lawyers to take up the cross and to continue to defend Black humanity on every level.”
Read it at The New York Times
