The 1850 daguerreotypes were the first documented racial profiling.

Evidence

I was appointed to be a member of the committee due to my role in the NAACP. Racial profiling has always been a cause I have embraced—I have dedicated much of my career to eradicating it. How ironic that my enslaved ancestors were possibly victims of the first incident of racial profiling in the history of this country. It all begins with these daguerreotypes. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 658

How ironic that my enslaved ancestors were possibly victims of the first incident of racial profiling in the history of this country. It all begins with these daguerreotypes. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 658

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: A narrative bridge connecting a modern criminal-justice cause to a 1850 archival image could anchor an essay or story about the through line Lanier traces.
• ADDENDUM: Extends the racial-profiling framing of the author’s career into the archival question at this book’s core — a usable frame for the reparations argument.
• SHARE: A crisp framing worth sending to anyone following the Renty case: profiling was the original gatekeeping act that produced the photographs.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard…, 658