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Skulls of 19 Black Americans Return to New Orleans After 150 Years in Germany
Skulls of 19 Black Americans Return to New Orleans After 150 Years in Germany
The remains, used in the 19th century as part of now discredited racial science, are being laid to rest on Saturday in a traditional jazz funeral.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans this month carries into Rhodes Funeral Home the remains of one of the 19 people whose skulls were used for research in Germany in the 19th century.Jacob Cochran/Dillard University
By Aishvarya Kavi
May 30, 2025
Sometime before Jan. 10, 1872, a young Black laborer named William Roberts checked himself into Charity Hospital in New Orleans. Just 23 years old, he was from Georgia and had a strong build, according to hospital records. His only recorded sickness was diarrhea.
He was one of 19 Black patients who died at the hospital in December 1871 and January 1872, and whose skulls were sent to Germany to be studied by a doctor researching a now wholly discredited science that purported a correlation between the shape and size of a skull and a person’s intellect and character.
The skulls languished in Germany for about 150 years until Leipzig University contacted the city of New Orleans two years ago to repatriate them.
They were returned to New Orleans this month, and on Saturday morning those 19 people who died in the 1800s are being honored with a jazz funeral before their skulls are interred.
{snip}
Aishvarya Kavi works in the Washington bureau of The Times, helping to cover a variety of political and national news.
The remains, used in the 19th century as part of now discredited racial science, are being laid to rest on Saturday in a traditional jazz funeral.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans this month carries into Rhodes Funeral Home the remains of one of the 19 people whose skulls were used for research in Germany in the 19th century.Jacob Cochran/Dillard University
By Aishvarya Kavi
May 30, 2025
Sometime before Jan. 10, 1872, a young Black laborer named William Roberts checked himself into Charity Hospital in New Orleans. Just 23 years old, he was from Georgia and had a strong build, according to hospital records. His only recorded sickness was diarrhea.
He was one of 19 Black patients who died at the hospital in December 1871 and January 1872, and whose skulls were sent to Germany to be studied by a doctor researching a now wholly discredited science that purported a correlation between the shape and size of a skull and a person’s intellect and character.
The skulls languished in Germany for about 150 years until Leipzig University contacted the city of New Orleans two years ago to repatriate them.
They were returned to New Orleans this month, and on Saturday morning those 19 people who died in the 1800s are being honored with a jazz funeral before their skulls are interred.
{snip}
Aishvarya Kavi works in the Washington bureau of The Times, helping to cover a variety of political and national news.
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