@lizmorganwelch.bsky.social
Writer, collaborator, teller of stories, lover of radical truth tellers (mom to one, wife to another, friends with many) Blessed.
FROM THESE ROOTS MY FIGHT WITH HARVARD TO RECLAIM MY LEGACY by Tamara Lanier with Liz Welch ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 2025 A stirring first-person account of holding powerful institutions responsible for abetting slavery. Battling on behalf of enslaved forebears. This inspiring memoir features unforgettable dialogue: “We’re going to Columbia, South Carolina, to spend the weekend with the family who enslaved our ancestors!” So Lanier tells her daughters, announcing a remarkable development in a long campaign. Her goal: compel Harvard University to hand over images of her great-great-great grandfather Renty Taylor and his daughter Delia, enslaved in the 19th century and treated as “specimens” to be studied. Lanier’s memoir begins in 2010, when she promises her dying mother that she’d chronicle her family’s history. She serendipitously mentions the project to the owner of an ice cream shop near her Connecticut home. Turns out he’s a “genealogical whiz.” With his help, she discovers that Renty and Delia are among seven enslaved people seen in infamous daguerreotypes commissioned in 1850 by Louis Agassiz, a Harvard professor with repugnant white supremacist theories. Lanier informs Harvard of her lineage but is thwarted by “academic arrogance.” Nevertheless, she persists. A phone call to the family that enslaved her relatives leads to a powerful moment, with Lanier “sitting in a chair hand-carved by” Prince Thompson, another ancestor. She also collaborates with descendants of Agassiz on a public appeal for Harvard to surrender the images, which the school published on a textbook cover and projected on a large screen at an academic conference, while denying similar requests from Lanier. Her 2019 lawsuit didn’t force Harvard to give up the daguerreotypes, but in a decision by Massachusetts’ highest court, justices cited strengths in Lanier’s claim and ruled that she could sue Harvard for emotional distress.
Also, Tamara Lanier's book about how Harvard actually treats the descendants of the enslaved people that the university continues to exploit is coming out next Tuesday, January 28.
Pre-order it!
From These Roots: My Fight With Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy
www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...
Tamara Lanier is fighter! Can't wait to read her book. #FreeRenty
13.11.2024 03:15 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0this genuinely, without exaggeration, healed a little fracture inside of me that has been broken my whole adult life
24.01.2025 04:24 — 👍 2131 🔁 279 💬 21 📌 2
“You can tell what kind of conservative a person is by discovering what year they want to go back to,” our columnist David Brooks writes. “For Trump, it seems to be sometime between 1830 and 1899.”
23.01.2025 22:14 — 👍 290 🔁 47 💬 18 📌 9
Final countdown to pub day! Cannot wait for this book to be in the world (1/28) Tamara Lanier realized her promise to her mother to “write their family history down” and discovers her ancestor is Congo Renty, her Papa Renty, among the first enslaved people photographed. Reparations lawsuit ensues.
24.01.2025 12:04 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0New to platform and excited to explore!
24.01.2025 11:12 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
