Harvard commissioned expert narratives about enslaved subjects while ignoring living descendants

Evidence

I came to this event to learn more about the history of slavery in South Carolina so I could continue piecing my story together. To learn that Harvard was creating their own narratives about Renty and Delia was beyond frustrating: once again I was confronted with academic arrogance. Why was Harvard willing to pay historians to create these narratives when they had me, a living descendant, who could share stories of at least one of the subjects photographed? I had reached out to them multiple times to share Renty’s rich oral history. By dismissing me they were dismissing him, his legacy, his story. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 577