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A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 21 March 2019
Harvard profits from early photos of slaves, lawsuit says

By COLLIN BINKLEY ation of Renty and Delia
AP Education Writer and that Harvard “was
BOSTON (AP) — Harvard complicit in perpetuating
University has “shamelessly” and justifying the institution
turned a profit from photos of slavery.”
of two 19th-century slaves A researcher at a Harvard
while ignoring requests to museum rediscovered
turn the photos over to the the photos in storage in
slaves’ descendants, ac- 1976. But Lanier’s case ar-
cording to a lawsuit filed gues Agassiz never legally
Wednesday. owned the photos because
Tamara Lanier, of Norwich, he didn’t have his subjects’
Connecticut, is suing the Ivy consent and that he didn’t
League school for “wrong- have the right to pass them
ful seizure, possession and to Harvard. Instead, the
expropriation” of images suit says, Lanier is the right-
she says depict two of her ful owner as Renty’s next of
ancestors. Her suit, filed in kin.
Massachusetts state court, The suit also argues that
demands that Harvard im- Harvard’s continued pos-
mediately turn over the session of the images vio-
photos, acknowledge her lates the 13th Amendment,
ancestry and pay an un- which abolished slavery.
specified sum in damages. In this July 17, 2018, photo, Tamara Lanier holds an 1850 “Renty is 169 years a slave
Harvard spokesman Jona- photograph of Renty, a South Carolina slave who Lanier said is by our calculation,” civil
than Swain said the uni- her family’s patriarch, at her home in Norwich, Conn. rights attorney Benjamin
versity “has not yet been Associated Press Crump, one of Lanier’s
served, and with that is in tions in search of racially ized on the photos by de- lawyers, said in an inter-
no position to comment on “pure” slaves born in Africa. manding a “hefty” licens- view. “How long will it be
this complaint.” “To Agassiz, Renty and De- ing fee to reproduce the before Harvard finally frees
At the center of the case is lia were nothing more than images. It also draws atten- Renty?”
a series of 1850 daguerre- research specimens,” the tion to a book Harvard sells Lanier says she grew up
otypes, an early type of suit says. “The violence of for $40 with Renty’s portrait hearing stories about Renty
photo, taken of two South compelling them to par- on the cover. The book, passed down from her
Carolina slaves identified ticipate in a degrading ex- called “From Site to Sight: mother. While enslaved
as Renty and his daugh- ercise designed to prove Anthropology, Photogra- in Columbia, South Caro-
ter, Delia. Both were posed their own subhuman status phy, and the Power of Im- lina, Renty taught himself
shirtless and photographed would not have occurred agery,” explores the use of to read and later held se-
from several angles. The Agassiz, whose theories on to him, let alone mattered.” photography in anthropol- cret Bible readings on the
images are believed to be racial difference were used The suit attacks Harvard for ogy. plantation, the suit says.
the earliest known photos to support slavery in the its “exploitation” of Renty’s Among other demands, He is described as “small in
of American slaves. U.S. The lawsuit says Agas- image at a 2017 confer- the suit asks Harvard to stature but towering in the
They were commissioned siz came across Renty and ence and in other uses. It acknowledge that it bears minds of those who knew
by Harvard biologist Louis Delia while touring planta- says Harvard has capital- responsibility for the humili- him.”q

Washington state deputy shot and killed by road rage suspect

NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS out and exchanged gun- shots were fired overall by
Associated Press fire with the sheriff’s dep- the officers and the sus-
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A uty and the police officer, pect. Thompson had been
sheriff’s deputy was killed Wade said. a law enforcement officer
in central Washington state “It was reported as a road- for years, joined the sheriff’s
and a police officer was rage type event, with er- department in 2013 and
shot and wounded after ratic driving on the part of is survived by his wife and
they exchanged gunfire the suspect,” said Wade, three children, said Kittitas
with a road rage driving whose office is investigat- County Sheriff Gene Dana.
suspect, authorities said ing the incident. “Our community has a very
Wednesday. Sheriff’s deputy Ryan heavy heart today,” Dana
The events unfolded Tues- Thompson, 42, was killed told reporters. “This officer
day evening when the two and Kittitas police officer was a great officer.”
officers tried to stop the sus- Benito Chavez, 22, was It was the first fatal shoot-
pect’s vehicle after author- shot in the leg and suffered ing of a law enforcement
ities received a complaint a shattered femur, Wade officer in the rural county
about the motorist’s driv- said. The suspect died at in 92 years, he said. Wade
ing, said Ellensburg Police a hospital and Wade said said authorities have no
Chief Ken Wade. authorities were still trying other information besides
The suspect, who has to identify him. Authorities the road rage incident for
not been identified, was The body of a Kittitas County Sheriff’s deputy is draped with a did not provide information what might have prompt-
chased by police until the U.S. flag as it is carried out of Kittitas Valley Healthcare Hospital about how many times he ed the suspect to flee and
driver stopped the car near in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 20, 2019, in was shot and Wade said exchange gunfire with the
Ellensburg, Wash.
the town of Kittitas. He got Associated Press he did not know how many officers.q