Boston
AP
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Harvard university will abandon 175 -year -old photographs It would be the earliest slaves to a southern Carolina museum dedicated to African-American history as part of a colony with a woman who says that she is one of the descendants of the subjects.
The photos of the subjects identified by Tamara Lanier as her back-back-in-the-art-grandfather Renty, whom she calls “Papa Renty”, and her daughter Delia will be transferred from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum of South Carolina, the state where they were slavized in 1850 when the photos were taken, Lanier.
The regulations mark the end of a 15 -year battle between Lanier and the estimated university to release the 19th century Daguerrypes, a precursor of modern photographs. Lanier’s lawyer Joshua Koskoff, told the Associated Press that the resolution was an “unprecedented” victory for the descendants of the enslaved in the United States and praised the determination of his client’s years in the pursuit of justice for the people she had identified as her ancestors.
“I think that is one of the American history, due to the combination of improbable characteristics: having a case dates back to 175 years, to gain control of images dating back to this long -lived people – this has never happened before,” Koskoff said.
A key question of the case was whether Harvard could legally be authorized to continue to have dehumanizing images of slaves who could not consent to participate. The Massachusetts judicial system was finally taken on the side of Harvard on the issue of property, but allowed Lanier to continue to undergo emotional damage from the institution.
Harvard said on Wednesday that he had worked for a long time to give up ownership of images “to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans.”
Negotiations between Harvard and Lawyers of Lanier led to a settlement which included the abolition of images of Harvard property.
Wednesday, Lanier held a portrait of Papa Renty while he was armed with Susanna Moore, the great-great-great-granddaughter of the Harvard biologist, Louis Agassiz, who commanded images in the name of the university and whose theories on racial difference were formerly used to support slavery in the United States. The two great-great-great-grandchildren-one of the slaves and another of a man who exploited them-praised the resolution.
“It is a moment in history when the sons and daughters of the stolen ancestors can stand with pride and rightly proclaim a victory for repairs,” said Lanier. “This crushed property, images taken without dignity or consent and used to promote racist psychoscience will now be repatriated to a house where their stories can be told and their humanity can be restored.”
Moore called the images captured by his ancestor, Agassiz, a “deeply racist project”.
“This victory reminds us that the meaning of these objects in museums can and should change,” she said. “This woman standing next to me, she knew throughout that she was not small and she was not alone.”
In 2019, Lanier continued Harvard, alleging that the images were taken “without the consent of Renty and Delia and therefore kept illegally”. The costume attacked Harvard for his “exploitation” of the Image of Renty at a conference in 2017 and in other uses. He said Harvard capitalized on the photos by demanding “heavy” license costs to reproduce the images.
Agassiz came across BENTY and DELIA during the planting tour in search of people who are reduced to racial “pure” “pure” born in Africa, according to Lanier’s costume. To create the images, Renty and Delia were laid shirtless and photographed from several angles.
“In Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,” said the trial. “The violence of obliging them to participate in a degrading exercise designed to prove that their own subhuman status would not have come to mind, and even less important.”
In 2021, a Massachusetts court judge These photos are the property of the photographer, not the subject – a position asserted by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts.
However, while Harvard sought to have the case reject, the High Court of the State authorized the case to continue the request for damages of the emotional distress of Lanier.
The highest jurisdiction of the state has recognized “the complicity of Harvard in horrible actions surrounding the creation of the Daguerreotypes”, saying that “Harvard’s current obligations cannot divorce its past abuses”.
In a statement, Harvard said he had long been looking forward to placing the Daguerreotypes of Zealy with another museum or other public institution “.
“These regulations now allow us to move forward towards this objective,” said the university. “Although we are grateful to Ms. Lanier to have triggered important conversations on these images, it was a complex situation, especially since Harvard did not confirm that Ms. Lanier was linked to the individuals of the Daguerreotypes.”
A new house for rent and Delia
Tonya Mr. Matthews, CEO of the African-American international museum, described the abandonment of Harvard images for a moment “175 years in preparation”.
“The bravery, tenacity and grace shown by Ms. Lanier throughout the long and difficult process to return these critical parts of Renty and the history of Delia in South Carolina is a model for all of us,” she said in a statement.
The Southern Carolina Museum has committed to working with Lanier and to include it in decisions about how the history of images will be told.
In Lanier’s trial, she asked Harvard to recognize his complicity in slavery, to listen to the oral family history of Lanier and to pay a sum not specified in damages. An uncompromising financial settlement was part of the resolution with Harvard announced on Wednesday, but Koskoff said that Harvard had still not publicly recognized Lanier’s connection with them or his link to perpetuate slavery in the United States, Koskoff said.
“It is only unanswered by Harvard,” he said. Koskoff said he wanted to be clear that Lanier and his team “support firmly” Harvard’s current fight Against the administration of American president Donald Trump while the White House moves Reduce billions of federal aid And Block the registration of international studentsaccusing the institution of being a home for liberalism and anti -Semitism.
“We are not here today to denigrate Harvard … But that does not mean that they are perfect, and that does not mean that they do not have the obligation to tell a complete story, even the one that is poorly released on their own veritas,” he said.
He said that Lanier does not expect or does not wait to hear the institution, but that the regulations speak for itself.
“In the end, the truth will find you-you can only hide it for so long,” he said. “Yes, the story is written by the winners. But over time, you know, these winners sometimes look like losers.”
