by New Orleans (AP) – New Orleans celebrated the return and burial of the remains of 19 African Americans, whose skulls were sent to Germany in the 19th century for racist research practices.
On Saturday, a Multifaith Memorial Service with a jazzberry, one of the most important traditions in the city, the city, the mankind of those who came home to their last resting place in Hurricane Katrina Memorial.
“We know this 19 ironic because of the terrible thing that happened to them after their death, the exposure to their bodies,” said Monique Guillory, President of Dillard University, a historically black private college for free Liberal Arts, which cited the preservation of the remains on behalf of the city. “This is actually an opportunity for us to recognize and remember humanity of all of these people, who, as you know, would have been denied such a respectful dispatch and final funeral.”
It is believed that the 19 people died in the Charity Hospital between 1871 and 1872 for natural reasons, which served people of all breeds and classes in New Orleans during the highlight of the white oppression of the supremacists in the 19th century. The hospital closed after hurricane Katrina in 2005.
During a service on Saturday, the remains were in 19 wooden boxes in the chapel of the university, which also contained music from the Kumbuka African Drum and Dance Collective.
A doctor in New Orleans provided the skulls of the 19 people to a German researcher in which he is involved in phenological studies – the unmasked conviction that the skull could determine a congenital racial characteristics.
“All types of experiments were carried out on black corpses that are alive and dead,” said Dr. Eva Baham, a historian who directed the efforts of Dillard University, to repatriate the remains of the individuals. “People who did not have an agency about themselves.”
In 2023, the University of Leipzig turned to the city of New Orleans in Germany to find a way to return the remains, said Guillory. The University of Leipzig did not immediately answer a request for comments.
“It is a demonstration of our own morals here in New Orleans and in Leipzig with the professors who wanted to do something to restore the dignity of these people,” said Baham.
Researchers at Dillard University say that even more ditch is to do, including the attempt to track down possible descendants. They believe that it is likely that some of the people have recently been freed from slavery.
“These were really poor, people in need at the end of the 19th century, but … they had names, they had addresses, they went through the streets of the city we love,” said Guillory. “We all deserve recognition of our humanity and the value of our life.”
