I sued Harvard to save my slave ancestors' legacy
It has been an incredibly long week. I thought it was Friday three days ago. Today we have a column about Tamara Lanier and her ancestors. She sued Harvard to save the legacy of her enslaved ancestors. She goes back to court in November.
I sued Harvard to save my slave ancestors' legacy
By Tamara Lanier
In January 2010, I lost my mother, Mattye P. Thompson Lanier.
She was the keeper of our family’s oral history. She often remarked of her experiences growing up in the Jim Crow South, describing her community as the cradle of the civil rights movement. And she was reared by her extended family, which included her grandfather, a former enslaved man named Renty Taylor Thompson – a descendant of Papa Renty, who was born in Africa and brought to America in chains.
Some of my mom's last comments to me were about documenting the story of Papa Renty – the first in a line of many men named Renty in my family. He was forced into bondage and, like many slaves, sold by whites in their quest to profit from human suffering.
I've never broken a promise to my mother.
Today's Editorial Cartoon
Courts must hold rogue cops accountable — everywhere
By The Editorial Board
Vietnam veteran José Oliva survived his service in the war and decades in law enforcement, but his most perilous moment came when he tried to get through security at the Veterans Affairs hospital in El Paso for a dental appointment.
The retiree, who was 70 years old at the time of the incident, was slammed to the ground by federal police, who wrenched his shoulder and held him in a chokehold before arresting him for disorderly conduct – a charge that was later dropped.
Police were shielded from liability in Oliva’s case. It's a compelling example of how far many judges will go to place federal cops above the law.
Supply chain shortages don't have to include kindness
By Connie Schultz
As Micheline Maynard recently wrote for the Washington Post, “Rather than living constantly on the verge of throwing a fit, and risking taking it out on overwhelmed servers, struggling shop owners or late-arriving delivery people, we’d do ourselves a favor by consciously lowering expectations.”
This customer misconduct is nothing new. We’ve just found a new excuse for it.
We’re angry at everybody now, it seems, or maybe those evergreen complaints are just irritating me more. Lately, I’ve watched post after post on social media blow up after someone complains about holding the door for a fellow customer who fails to say thank you. Within a dozen responses that ungrateful stranger morphs from rude and inconsiderate into the spawn of Satan and all that is wrong with our world.
Other columns to read
- If academic tenure is in trouble at colleges, so is academic freedom
- Advocating for our children during pandemic doesn't mean parents are anti-vax
- Americans don't know enough about the protections of the First Amendment
- From climate change to racism, how the arts can save us
Columns on qualified immunity
Here's a new section we're adding to the newsletter. Currently, we are doing a series examining the issue of qualified immunity. For more on the series read here.
- Courts must hold rogue cops accountable everywhere — even at the dentist
- Supreme Court just doubled down on flawed qualified immunity rule
- I refused to lie under oath for the state of Arizona, and the courts aren't on my side
- Qualified immunity: 8 myths about why police need it to protect the public
This newsletter was compiled by Jaden Amos.