Stacy M. Brown/Black Press USA
Harvard University will relinquish ownership of the earliest known photographs of enslaved people as part of a historic legal settlement announced Wednesday by nationally renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
The agreement resolves a 2019 lawsuit filed by Tamara Lanier, the great-great-great-granddaughter of an enslaved man known as “Papa Renty,” whose image, along with that of his daughter Delia and five others, was captured in 1850 to support racist scientific theories promoted by a Harvard professor.
The 19th-century daguerreotypes, long held by Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, were commissioned by Swiss-born biologist Louis Agassiz, a Harvard professor who used the images in a campaign to promote polygenism—the debunked and deeply racist theory that different races have separate origins and that Africans and African Americans are inferior to whites.
The photographs were taken in South Carolina, where Renty and Delia were stripped and posed under duress.
“This is a day of reckoning 175 years in the making,” said Josh Koskoff, co-counsel on the case. “This is not just an unlikely personal victory for the Lanier family; it is also a win for the importance of truth and the power of history at a time when both values are under unprecedented assault.”
Harvard accused of profiting from images
As part of the settlement, Harvard has agreed to fully relinquish the images to Lanier, who is advocating for their permanent display at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina—the same state where the pictures were initially taken. A confidential financial agreement was also reached.
“Since Black Americans were first brought to this country in chains, our pain and trauma have been exploited for capitalistic gain,” said Lanier. “Harvard played a role in the darkest chapter in American history. This is a small step in the right direction towards fully acknowledging that history and working to rectify it.”
The lawsuit accused Harvard of wrongfully seizing and profiting from the images, charging licensing fees for their use in books and promotional materials, and publicly dismissing Lanier’s well-documented genealogical claims.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in her favor in 2022, stating that “Harvard’s present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses.”
“Papa Renty was taken from his descendants and used to promote a lie – but today, he has finally been returned to the love and care of his family,” said Crump. “This historic settlement is a step forward in the pursuit of justice and a recognition of the pain caused by the dark history of exploiting enslaved people.”
“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 said.
