Thaddeus Street Jr. Education Center
Septima P. Clark Auditorium (Rm 118)
25 St. Philip Street, Charleston, SC
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
5:30PM – 7:00 PM (ET)

The Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston has invited Tamara Lanier to deliver a lecture about her enslaved ancestors, whose naked or partially clothed bodies were forcibly photographed in 1850 outside of Columbia, SC, for a Harvard scientist, Louis Agassiz. Agassiz supported racist theories of polygenesis, and Harvard currently owns these photographs. You may be familiar with the court case Lanier has brought against Harvard to obtain the rights to these images. Her case foregrounds the need for legislation that protects the cultural property of descendants of chattel slavery in the United States. I hope you can attend and hear her speak about the importance of her family’s history and the ethical and legal matters regarding who gets to own, display, and view historical artifacts of slavery.