From These Roots: My Fight with Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy

(Hardback)

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One woman's unrelenting mission to reclaim her ancestors' history and honor their lineage pits her against one of the country's most powerful institutions- Harvard University One woman's unrelenting mission to reclaim her ancestors' history and honor their lineage pits her against one of the country's most powerful institutions- Harvard University Tamara Lanier grew up listening to her mother's stories about her ancestors. As Black Americans descended from enslaved people brought to America, they knew all too well how fragile the tapestry of a lineage could be. As her mother's health declined, she pushed her daughter to dig into those stories. "Tell them about Papa Renty," she would say. It was her mother's last wish. Thus begins one woman's remarkable commitment to document that story. Her discovery of a nineteenth-century daguerreotype at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, one of the first-ever photos of enslaved people from Africa, reveals a dark-skinned man with short-cropped silver hair and chiseled cheekbones. The information read "Renty, Congo." All at once, Lanier knew she was staring at the ancestor her mother told her so much about-Papa Renty. In a compelling account covering more than a decade of her own research, Lanier takes us on her quest to prove her genealogical bloodline to Papa Renty's that pits her in a legal battle against Harvard and its army of lawyers. The question is, who has claim to the stories, artifacts, and remnants of America's stained history-the institutions who acquired and housed them for generations, or the descendants who have survived From These Roots is not only a historical record of one woman's lineage but a call to justice that fights for all those demanding to reclaim, honor, and lay to rest the remains of mishandled lives and memories.

Reviews

In the tradition of Sojourner Truth, From These Roots isthe rivetingand moving story of one woman's crusade for simple justice on behalf of her beloved ancestors.Jill Abramson, former executive editor, The New York Times

In 1976, the same year Alex Haley published Roots, Ellie Reichlin at Harvards Peabody Museum unearthed a stunning 1850 image of an elderly African named Renty, enslaved in South Carolina. A half century later, thisimpassionedwork by a dedicated descendant brings Renty and his lineage back to life, offeringa disturbing and provocative window into four centuries of American history.Peter H. Wood, author of Strange New Land

Laniers story is at once moving, surprising, and infuriating.Academics like myself should read it with humility to realize how many paths to knowledge can be found outside what in this case must be called the ivory tower.Nicholas Mirzoeff, author of White Sight; professor and chair in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU

Tamara Laniers quest to repatriate Papa Renty, an ancestor she discovered in a rare daguerreotype from 1850, unsettles many premises of common conversations around photography, museum collections and academic institutions . . . A must-read book to anyone who cares about justice in an unjust world.Ariella Azoulay, professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University

From These Roots is agrippingaccount of Laniers righteous search for the personal history behind the haunting daguerreotypes of Renty and Delia, hostages to the original sin of a nation. As Lanier uncovers her origins, she stands up to one of Americas most powerful institutions and demands restitution.Anne-Marie OConnor, author of The Lady in Gold

From These Roots gives us a powerful heroic saga,at once haunting and inspiring,with an institutional villain as dark as any monster found in classic myth. Lanier guides us on a journey to fulfill a death bed pledge to her mother to write the family oral history, passed down across generations; a story that mirrors and echoes the entirety of American history.Dr. David Harris, Emeritus Managing Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School

Inthis deeply personal, compelling American story, Tamara Lanier shows what we must learn: that slaverys afterlife is real and confronting it while seeking reparative justice, remains Americas unfinished business.Dr. Bernard Powers, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston

In From These Roots, Tamara Lanier shares her unrelenting battle to own her family history and heritage. Her story offersan inspiring and timely lesson in never giving up.Linda Villarosa, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Under the Skin

From These Roots . . . compels us to face the painful truth that Americas past cannot be divorced from its present. Its a must-read for those who believe in Justice.Attorney Ben Crump

Author Bio

Tamara K. Lanier is a tireless champion for truth and justice-and a plaintiff in the Lanier v. Harvard reparations lawsuit. She is a descendant of Papa Renty. She is also a twenty-seven-year veteran of the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, where she retired as a Chief Probation Officer. Lanier has a long and distinguished record of public service and social advocacy. She is a board member of Connecticut's Racial Profiling Prohibition Project, the past Vice President of the New London NAACP, and an active member of The Saint John's Christian Church of Groton, Connecticut. Lanier has several passions, one of which is to eradicate racial and ethnic disparities in Connecticut's Criminal Justice System and to put an end to the ugly practice of racial profiling. She has been a constant voice for change and has traveled the country promoting the need for a national dialogue relative to slavery and its impact on society. She lives in Norwich, Connecticut.