Remains of 19 Black Americans Repatriated from Germany to New Orleans for Jazz Funeral and Memorial
- Victor Nwoko
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
The remains of 19 Black Americans, whose skulls were taken to Leipzig, Germany in the 1880s for so-called “racial pseudoscience” experiments, have been returned to New Orleans to be honored in a proper memorial ceremony, officials announced Thursday.
The individuals—13 men, four women, and two unidentified persons—were stolen from New Orleans nearly 150 years ago and used as objects of study in discredited scientific practices aimed at justifying racial hierarchies. A coalition led by Dillard University, the City of New Orleans, and University Medical Center will host a traditional New Orleans-style jazz funeral for the deceased on Saturday morning.
“These were people with names. They were people with stories and histories,” said Dr. Monique Guillory, president of Dillard University. “Some of them had families—mothers, fathers, daughters, sons. Human beings. Not specimens. Not numbers.”
Dr. Eva Baham, chair of Dillard University’s Cultural Repatriation Committee, shared that the University of Leipzig contacted New Orleans officials in 2023 with the intent to return the remains. In response, the Cultural Repatriation Committee was formed in 2024 to identify the deceased and reconstruct their histories.
By reviewing death records archived from the historic Charity Hospital, the committee identified 17 of the 19 individuals. Charity Hospital, which served people of all races from 1736 until it closed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was the source of key archival data. University Medical Center New Orleans, which opened in 2015 on the site of the former hospital, served as the primary financial supporter of the project.
According to Dr. Baham, the 19 people died in a short window—17 in December 1871 and two in January 1872. Their ages ranged from 15 to 70. Many were not originally from Louisiana, with several coming from Kentucky and Tennessee. Ten of the 19 individuals had only been in New Orleans for six years or less before their deaths.
“We have people who were in New Orleans for only an hour in 1871, one day, a week, or a few months,” Baham noted. “It’s important to remember that the Civil War had ended just six years earlier, in 1865. These individuals arrived during a deeply unstable period in American history.”
The committee released the names of the 17 people who were successfully identified:
Adam Grant, 50; Isaak Bell, 70; Hiram Smith, 23; William Pierson, 43; Henry Williams, 55; John Brown, 48; Hiram Malone, 21; William Roberts, 23; Alice Brown, 15; Prescilla Hatchet, 19; Marie Louise, 55; Mahala (last name unknown), 70; Samuel Prince, 40; John Tolman, 23; Henry Allen, 17; Moses Willis, 23; and Henry Anderson, 23.
No living descendants have yet been found, but the repatriation effort represents a profound step toward historical justice.
Charlotte Parent, Vice President of Business Development at University Medical Center, acknowledged the dark legacy of the era. “We can’t rewrite history,” she said. “The times were what they were. But we can always look back and figure out ways to embrace and make things as right as we can. This is one of those moments.”
The Saturday ceremony will blend cultural reverence with solemnity, offering a symbolic act of dignity and respect long overdue to those whose lives and identities were stripped away in the name of scientific racism.
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