On Jan. 22, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology buried the 19 unidentified remains of Black people kept by the Samuel G. Morton Cranial Collection. Morton was a physician and professor at the University of Pennsylvania during the 1830s. He was known for collecting crania to advance racist pseudoscience regarding the superiority of the white race. The way Penn Museum has handled these remains has come at the cost of the voices of community activists and Black Philadelphians, specifically the group known as Finding Ceremony.
The reality is that community care and grassroots organizations against historical anti-Blackness and racism will consistently be more effective than the efforts of institutions, as across the country, racism is ingrained into every gear of the institutional machinery. Considering all of this, Penn Museum has historically failed to repatriate these remains properly and has continued a legacy of anti-Blackness and racism.
One of the first red flags of this particular moment is that the burial of the remains happened with a small group in secret on Jan. 22 because they wanted to skirt opponents who planned to prevent the burial of the 19. The interfaith ceremony took place on the following weekend on Saturday. Penn Museum’s decision to do the active burial in secret is further evidence that the center of their concern is not with correcting their history of anti-Blackness, medical racism or giving proper reverence to the remains of these 19 individuals. Furthermore, the mishandling of these unidentified Black remains predates the physical burial and further proves that the University of Pennsylvania Museum has failed to act accordingly.
It is important to discuss the group Finding Ceremony within this conversation as it is at the center of the disagreement with the Penn Museum. The group’s mission statement follows: “Finding Ceremony is a descendant community-controlled process, restoring the lineages of care, reverence and spiritual memory to the work of caring for our dead.” Considering the history of slavery, medical racism and the numerous anti-Black atrocities that the institutions across America enact upon Black people, it is fitting that Penn Museum not only hears the demands and concerns of Finding Ceremony, but that they respond accordingly and defer to their expertise.
Continually ignoring the wishes of Finding Ceremony further perpetuates modes of anti-Blackness, and the Penn Museum has ignored the wishes of the Black community members who are deeply concerned with this issue. aAliy Muhammad, one of the leaders of Finding Ceremony, is a Black community leader with deep roots in Philadelphia. Muhammad has been.a large proponent has fought for these remains to be repatriated with proper care and concern. When Muhammad petitioned the court so their group could gain control over the repatriation of the remains, the court ruled in favor of the museum. According to reports from the Associated Press reporters, “In cases like that between the University of Pennsylvania and Black Philadelphians, institutions maintain control over the collections and how they are returned.” However, sources like the Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out that “the current best practice for repatriation is giving descendants control over any burial or research decisions.” The deferment of authority given to Penn is quite disconcerting and most likely due to their status as an established and influential institution.
Furthermore, the New York Times stated, “A spokesperson for the museum said that archival research into the identities was continuing and that the museum was working with an independent genealogy expert.” It’s incredibly telling that the information about how the continued research will be conducted is scarce. It leaves us with more questions than answers. How much time and funding is being provided for this effort? How many Black people are being consulted and considered? It is easy for institutions to save face with fake promises and statements that claim proper action will be taken. The Penn Museum has consistently failed to defer to community organizers and Black Philadelphians who are deeply dedicated to giving time and resources to handle these remains properly. The Associated Press reported that Christopher Woods, the Penn Museum Director, stated, “If future research allows any remains to be identified and a claim is made, they can be ‘easily retrieved and entrusted to descendants.’” While this statement is arguably positive, this, in conjunction with the information provided by the NYT and all other instances, suggests an emptiness to Woods’ statement.
Woods has been the director of the Penn Museum since 2021 and is the first Black museum director; however, the full scope and impact of this moment should not be trivialized or reduced by idealization of diversity within potions of power. Especially positions of institutional power, leaders speak from the place of the institution. Woods is one of many people who are involved in the way these 19 Black remains have been handled, and the right thing for the institution to do is to provide the descendant community with funds and support to do the work that Penn Museum cannot and will not do transparently. The Finding Ceremony is clear and true intentions as a descendant community, but the intentions and efforts of an institution as large and powerful as Penn will never be as transparent as needed for such a sensitive issue. If you want to support or learn more about Finding Ceremony, I encourage you to visit their website.
Zoë Chapital, FCRH ’24, is an English major from Walnut Creek, Calif.
