Is There Room for Descendants of Enslaved Peoples in the Domestic Legal Framework for Restitution and Repatriation of Cultural and Familial Property?
I. Introduction In 1850, seven enslaved men and women–Alfred, Fassena, Jack, Jem, Drana, Renty, and Delia–were stripped of their clothes and photographed at the request of Harvard professor Louis Agassiz. More than a century later, Tamara Lanier, a fifth-generation descendant of Renty and his daughter, Delia, filed a suit against Harvard, claiming ownership and seeking restitution … Continued