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My Fight with Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy
by Tamara Lanier
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.
"A stirring first-person account of holding powerful institutions responsible for abetting slavery." —Kirkus Reviews
"In the tradition of Sojourner Truth, From These Roots is the riveting and 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 From These Roots, Tamara Lanier shares her unrelenting battle to own her family history and heritage. Her story offers an inspiring and timely lesson in never giving up." —Linda Villarosa, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Under the Skin
This information about From These Roots was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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.
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