February 6 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm EST
Norwich resident, Tamara Lanier joins Connecticut Public’s Lucy Nalpathanchil to talk about her new book and her mission to reclaim her ancestors’ history and honor their lineage. Her fight pits her against one of the country’s most powerful institutions: Harvard University.
FROM THESE ROOTS: My Fight with Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy (Crown, on sale 1/28), is a compelling account covering more than a decade. Lanier takes readers on her quest to prove her genealogical bloodline to Papa Renty that pits her against Harvard and its army of lawyers. In a legal battle that has been ongoing for 5 years, Lanier’s story asks us to question who has claim to the stories, artifacts, and remnants of America’s stained history—the institutions who acquired and housed them for generations, or the descendants who have survived?
The case of Lanier v Harvard will have groundbreaking implications for the legal precedent for reparations, the arts and ethical stewardship, and genealogical history for BIPOC descendants cutting across unequal institutional and cultural lines.
The next court date for the Lanier v Harvard case is scheduled for January 2025.
The Key Bookstore is partnering with CT Public on this event. Be sure to pre-order your copy of FROM THESE ROOTS by clicking here or visiting keybookstore.com.
***Tamara will be signing copies of her book until 8:30 pm after the one hour conversation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tamara K. Lanier is a tireless champion for truth and justice—and a plaintiff in the Lanier v. Harvard reparations lawsuit. She is a descendant of Papa Renty. She is also a twenty-seven-year veteran of the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, where she retired as a Chief Probation Officer. Lanier has a long and distinguished record of public service and social advocacy. She is a board member of Connecticut’s Racial Profiling Prohibition Project, the past Vice President of the New London NAACP, and an active member of The Saint John’s Christian Church of Groton, Connecticut. Lanier has several passions, one of which is to eradicate racial and ethnic disparities in Connecticut’s Criminal Justice System and to put an end to the ugly practice of racial profiling. She has been a constant voice for change and has traveled the country promoting the need for a national dialogue relative to slavery and its impact on society.