The NAACP’s Cambridge branch declined to lend institutional weight to Lanier’s case.

Evidence

I was the last item on the agenda, which I understood. I was a guest. When my turn came, I shared my story, and saw that several people were clearly interested, while others were unsure how they could help or what they could do. I was perplexed: if someone had come to our branch with an issue like this, our first order of business would be to send a letter to Harvard demanding that they meet with all of us. Instead they suggested that I alone write to Drew Gilpin Faust, then Harvard’s president. As I drove the two hours back home, I felt even more disappointed than I had coming back from the Peabody. Why pass me back to Harvard? It did not make sense and felt like a colossal waste of time. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 289

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: did the NAACP’s refusal to escalate indicate they doubted her claim, or that Cambridge chapter politics had other priorities? The asymmetry with her own branch’s instincts is striking.