MORNING HEADLINES | The International African American Museum is the new steward of images from 1850 that are believed to be the earliest known photos of enslaved Americans.
Before the Civil War, the images of an enslaved man and his daughter were used to advance a professor’s racist theories, according to The New York Times.
On Wednesday, the museum on Wednesday honored the arrival of the 15 controversial daguerreotypes that have been the focus of a lengthy fight with Harvard University.
The Times reported that “the original intent of the images was to showcase people as specimens,” according to IAAM President and CEO Tonya Matthews. And that made the images “not easy to look at.” But she told the paper that she hoped the people in the images would be viewed as humans and not just people used for racist purposes.
- Previous CP coverage: IAAM will receive images
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