A judge has denied Harvard University’s request for plaintiff Tamara Lanier to change key sections of her latest lawsuit against the school. Lanier, a black woman from Connecticut who sued Harvard University on daguerreotypes of her enslaved ancestors held in the collection of her Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, alleges that she suffered emotionally as a result of the school’s retention of the images and her conduct surrounding her claims .
Middlesex County Superior Court in New Jersey heard arguments from both sides today, April 13, following Harvard’s motion in December to dismiss Lanier’s charges. Last summer, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Harvard was not legally obligated to return the photographs – thereby dismissing Lanier’s ownership claims – but unanimously decided that she could pursue a case related to the physical and emotional consequences she suffered. In that decision, the court found that Harvard “cavaliantly dismissed its ancestral claims and ignored its demands,” decisions that Lanier’s representatives today relied on as the basis for claims of “negligent or reckless infliction of emotional distress.”
“Even at this very moment, in this courtroom today, Harvard is aggravating Ms. Lanier’s suffering and emotional damage,” attorney Benjamin Crump said during today’s hearing.
In response to Harvard’s suggestion that the school keep the daguerreotypes and use them to educate the public about history, Crump replied bluntly, “Nobody would agree that the Nazis were best placed to educate the society about the evils of the Holocaust. And yet in America they say Harvard, because it’s Harvard, even if it was complicit, they are the best at keeping the daguerreotypes and educating the public on the wickedness of these.
The photographs of Papa Renty and his daughter Delia were commissioned in 1850 by Louis Agassiz, a Harvard professor and, among other things, a proponent of pseudoscientific theories linking biology to white racial superiority. A total of 15 images taken by Joseph T. Zealy, including four of Lanier’s shirtless ancestors, were acquired by the Peabody Museum in 1936. They remained there until retrieved by a museum researcher 40 years later. In 2019, after demanding the photos be returned “until they were nauseous”, in Lanier’s own words, she sued the university for unlawful possession, demanding that they turn over the images and pay him damages. punitive – in vain. The school reportedly included the photos in a book and lecture without informing Lanier or asking for his consent.
Harvard University did not respond to Hyperallergicrequest for comment.
Now Harvard is doubling down. At today’s hearing, the school’s lawyer argued that returning the photographs to Lanier should not be an acceptable form of relief – citing the 2022 decision – and asked that the possibility to return the photos either dismissed before the case goes to trial.
Judge Barry-Smith ultimately denied Harvard’s initial motion to strike “all issues” from the suit, a victory for Lanier, and urged both parties to move forward with the discovery and disposition stages of the case. case, postponing the issue of reparation.
“We’re trying to respect the Supreme Court’s decision and they said there was no legal claim,” Crump said. “However, if I speak honestly on behalf of Ms Lanier, it was justice she was asking for and she promised these things to her dying mother. We believe that if given her day in court, the jury will decide on damages awarded to this black woman who is doing what slaves were never meant to do, which is to trace their roots.
