Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard

Tamara Lanier, is an African-American woman determined to force Harvard University to cede ownership of daguerreotypes of her great-great-great grandfather, an enslaved man named Renty. The images are emblematic of the inhumanity of slavery, the racist science that supported it, and the white supremacy that continues to infect our society today. The film focuses on Lanier, following her lawsuit and the growing activism around it, and features Attorney Benjamin Crump and author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Following the screening Tamara Lanier, Attorney Preston Tisdale, Dr. David Harris (former Managing Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School) and Jill Abramson (Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Harvard University) will discuss the the film and the implications of the decision issued recently by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.