Latest news with #DillardUniversity
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State funding cuts hurt New Orleans Essence Festival, according to councilwoman
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — According to Kelly Shultz, Vice President of Communications with New Orleans & Co., there are 26,000 hotel rooms within a 2-mile radius of the Convention Center. On Saturday, these rooms were filled up at an 86% occupancy rate, a drop from its normal rates for essence festival. Louisiana search and rescue teams sent to Texas for flood response 'It's a little bit lower than what it was in 2024 at 91 percent,' Shultz said. According to Councilwoman Helena Moreno, this dip in attendance can be attributed to drop in state funding. In an Instagram post, she writes that Essence received almost $2 million less than usual from the state of Louisiana. This dip in funding may be significant as next year will be the festival's final year on its current contract, and without the regular attendance, the festival may be on the verge of leaving New Orleans. Shultz says the festival is too significant to let go. 'Essence did an economic impact study last year with Dillard university and so Dillard university found that for 2024 fest alone, the fest had an economic impact of over $340 million,' Shultz said. Shultz says funding is key to keep festivals like essence going and keep that economic impact alive. 'Without tourism, without events like essence fest, our city would not be as strong as it is today,' Shultz funding cuts hurt New Orleans Essence Festival, according to councilwoman Child severely injured in Slidell dog attack Louisiana Red Cross mobilizes to help Texas flood victims, urges volunteers to join effort New Orleans rowers embark on 600-mile journey with Jimmy Graham Ceremony held in remembrance of Katrina in New Orleans Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Black Americans being used as guinea pigs involved universities
In 1871, Henry D. Schmidt, a New Orleans doctor, 'gifted' the crania of 19 formerly enslaved African American and mixed-race individuals to Dr. Emil Ludwig Schmidt at the University of Leipzig to study the racist hypothesis that a person's morality or intelligence could be determined by crevices and bumps of their skull. A century and a half later, in a presumed act of higher consciousness, the German university no longer felt the need to house the ill-gotten skulls and, on Saturday, the remains of those 19 disregarded souls were given a proper burial in New Orleans. Saturday's event at Dillard University took place on the same week that Harvard University announced that it is relinquishing what are believed to be among the earliest photos of enslaved people in the United States. The 1850 images of a father and daughter known as Renty and Delia, who were photographed naked to the waist, were commissioned by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz to support the theory of polygenism, the idea that human races evolved separately. Harvard would probably still be clutching those photos if Tamara Lanier, an author who says she's a descendant of the father and daughter pictured, hadn't fought a 15-year legal battle with the university. But the photos won't come to her. Renty and Delia's images will now be placed at the International African American Museum in South Carolina, the state where they were enslaved. As I sat through the three-hour service, which included a city acknowledgement by New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, musical tributes and a riveting performance from Dillard University's Theatre Ensemble personifying the 19 human beings we were paying homage to, I couldn't help but think about the history of Black Americans being the guinea pigs for experimentation or examination or the subject of incomplete theories, under the guise of scientific advancement. Or the irony of racist individuals using 'inferior' Black specimens to interrogate complex ideas about human physiology, and still arriving at racist conclusions even with evidence in their possession that contradicts their hypotheses. We live in a moment where there is a persistent effort to erase all knowledge of these atrocities and pretend as if they were just figments of Black folks' imagination. But Eva Baham, who chaired the Cultural Repatriation Committee that brought the remains of the 19 New Orleanians home, said during Saturday's service that the purpose of studying history is 'to move forward. And when we keep our past hidden, we are starting over every day.' The memorial service for Adam Grant, Isaak Bell, Hiram Smith, William Pierson, Henry Williams, John Brown, Hiram Malone, William Roberts, Alice Brown, Prescilla Hatchet, Marie Louise, Mahala, Samuel Prince, John Tolman, Henry Allen, Moses Willis, Henry Anderson and two other unidentified souls was unlike any other I have witnessed. The decedents had transitioned over a century and a half ago; however, their departure from this realm could not have been considered peaceful before this weekend's ceremony. Roughly 200 community members filled the sanctuary of Dillard's Lawless Memorial Chapel to pay their respects to these ancestors who were so horribly disrespected after they died. 'It was emotionally draining because you're trying your best to make some connections and to search and find [that] there's hope,' Freddi Williams Evans, a member of the Cultural Repatriation Committee, told me. 'We could not verify any descendants. And so we have to step in and be their family.' Harvard is letting go not just of the photos of Renty and Delia, but also images of enslaved people known as Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack and Jem. Lanier, who says she's the great-great-great-granddaughter of 'Papa Renty,' said of the settlement with Harvard, 'This pilfered property, images taken without dignity or consent and used to promote a racist psychoscience will now be repatriated to a home where their stories can be told and their humanity can be restored.' As she spoke Wednesday she locked arms with Susanna Moore, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Agassiz, the Harvard biologist. Moore rightly called the work her forefather was doing with the photos 'a deeply racist project.' The combination of Harvard relinquishing its photos and Dillard receiving the remains of those wrongly shipped to a lab overseas means that even in 2025, we are still unpacking just how much dehumanization defined slavery and its aftermath in the United States. Dillard University President Monique Guillory told me it was important to honor the 19 in New Orleans because 'They walked the streets of New Orleans like we do.' Saturday's ceremony ended with African drumming and dancing, and then attendees were led out of the chapel by a jazz band and a traditional New Orleans second line en route to bury the remains of a tormented people, the right way. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Stolen Black Remains Return Home After 150 Years in European Vault
Underneath oak trees and Spanish moss from Texas to the Carolina coasts, the remains of Black Americans lay in unmarked graves across roadside cemeteries and backyards. While some graves now remain hidden beneath highways and shopping malls, others have been stripped of their dignity in an even more insidious way. Nowhere is this more painfully clear than in New Orleans, where the remains of 19 Black men and women, once spirited away across the ocean in the name of racist science, have finally come home. For 150 years, their remains languished in a German vault, until, at last, they were brought home in May and honored with a jazz funeral this past weekend and interred in the city that once denied them peace in both life and death. Their journey reveals the depths of exploitation endured by Black Americans, and the current movement to restore what was lost, name by name, soul by soul, said Eva Baham, a historian from Dillard University in New Orleans who led the cultural repatriation committee to bring the remains back to the U.S. Between December 1871 and January 1872, 19 people checked themselves into Charity Hospital in New Orleans. They were ordinary people whose final indignity came not in death, but in what followed. There was Marie Louise, who died of malnutrition, her life ending quietly in a city she had always called home. Hiram Malone, just 21, succumbed to pneumonia far from the Alabama soil where he was born. Samuel Prince, a cook of 40 years, lost his battle with tuberculosis, and William Roberts, a 23-year-old man from Georgia, died from diarrhea. Their skulls were severed and shipped across the Atlantic, cataloged as 'specimens' in a German university, as the pseudoscience of phrenology took root across the globe. The theories claimed there were connections between someone's intellect — and morality — with the size and shape of their skull. It was used to proliferate the false idea that Black and brown people were inferior to white people. The skulls' return to the U.S. is believed to be the first major international restitution of the remains of Black Americans from Europe. The homecoming is a reckoning with the relentless cycle of exploitation, dispossession, and erasure that has defined Black existence in America, advocates behind the initiative explained. 'This moment calls us to bear witness to a painful chapter in our collective history while recognizing the unique role our institution plays in preserving the dignity and legacy of those who were wrongfully taken,' said Monique Guillory, president of Dillard University, where the funeral service was held. 'This is more than an act of remembrance — it is a restoration of humanity.' From the theft of bodies for pseudoscience to the plundering of land and the forced migrations that have scattered families and severed roots, Black Americans have repeatedly been ripped from the places and people that ground them, Baham said. The loss is ongoing and dictating the shape of modern life, from the continued struggle for agency over one's body in the health care system to the demand for restitution and remembrance from the institutions that exacerbate racial inequality in the country. 'These people's lives had meaning,' Baham said during the memorial. 'History is not to wallow in, or wind about. It is to build on. It is to move forward. And when we keep our past hidden, we're starting over every day,' she added. In 2023, the University of Leipzig in Germany reached out to New Orleans' city archaeologist, acknowledging that the skulls in their collection had been acquired in a 'colonial context and unethically.' What followed was a two-year journey of coordination between city officials, state agencies, and academic partners. Researchers believe many of the 19 victims had once been enslaved, later moving freely in the uncertain years after the Civil War, only to fall ill or be institutionalized before dying at Charity Hospital. The hospital, which was abandoned after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was one of America's oldest hospitals known to care for Black and poor people. Over the past two years, Baham's team has pieced together glimpses into their lives: 13 men and four women, with two still unnamed. The committee tried for two years to contact descendants of the victims, but had no success. At the memorial, a group of Dillard students read from the little info collected from hospital and census records, ending with the final chapter of their journey. 'Another voyage across the Atlantic, passing bones of enslaved Africans on the ocean floor,' the students' said. 'From Africa, to the Caribbean, to the United States of America; from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Leipzig, Germany; from Leipzig, Germany to New Orleans, Louisiana — justice carries 19 men and women home. May they walk freely in the city of God, in dignity and in honor.' You can watch the memorial in full here. The post Stolen Black Remains Return Home After 150 Years in European Vault appeared first on Capital B News.
Newsweek
02-06-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
Donald Trump's Approval Rating Remains Underwater With Republican Pollster
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. President Donald Trump's approval rating remains underwater, according to a poll conducted by a Republican-leaning pollster. The latest RMG Research/Napolitan News poll, conducted between May 20 and 29 among 3,000 registered voters, found 49 percent approve of the way Trump is doing his job, while 50 percent disapprove. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points. President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing in ceremony for interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro in the Oval Office of the White House on May 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing in ceremony for interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro in the Oval Office of the White House on May 28, 2025 in Washington, It Matters There has been some evidence of Trump's approval rating ticking up slightly after a period of decline following the introduction of his "Liberation Day" tariffs in April. But Trump's approval rating remaining in the negative, albeit within the margin of error, with a Republican-leaning pollster could be a sign of alarm for the White House. What To Know The latest RMG Research/Napolitan News poll found Trump's approval rating has improved very slightly from a survey conducted in mid-May. The earlier survey showed Trump's approval rating had dipped into negative territory, with 48 percent approving of the job he is doing and 50 percent disapproving. Only one other RMG Research/Napolitan News poll conducted during Trump's second term has seen the president with a net negative approval rating. A survey conducted in mid-April, days after he unveiled his "Liberation Day" tariffs, sending stock markets into a tailspin and sparking recession fears, saw his approval rating at -3, with 48 percent approving of Trump's performance and 51 percent disapproving. All other surveys have seen Trump with an approval rating above water, with the highest approval rating of +18 coming in a survey conducted the week Trump returned to office in January, when 57 percent approving of the job he was doing and just 39 percent disapproving. What People Are Saying Political analyst Robert Collins, a professor at Dillard University, told Newsweek last week that Trump's approval rating is "inching up because the economy has stabilized and Trump has put a pause on his most draconian tariffs, which were unpopular. "However, if those draconian tariffs do go into effect, due to trade negotiations breaking down, and it causes prices to spike, then we can expect his approval rating to go back down. The current number is historically a little low for a president during this part of his second term, but not outside of the normal range." Democratic pollster Matt McDermott previously told Newsweek that small shifts in polls are "statistical noise," not signs of growing support. "What we're seeing is stagnation, not momentum," he said. "Trump is hoping to shift blame for a weakening economy, but it's not going to work. Voters know exactly who's responsible." What's Next Trump's approval rating will likely play a major role for the GOP in the 2026 midterm elections.
Time of India
01-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
New Orleans holds burial of repatriated African Americans whose skulls were used in racist research
New Orleans holds burial of repatriated African Americans whose skulls were used in racist research (AP) NEW ORLEANS: New Orleans celebrated the return and burial of the remains of 19 African American people whose skulls had been sent to Germany for racist research practices in the 19th century. On Saturday, a multifaith memorial service including a jazz funeral, one of the city's most distinct traditions, paid tribute to the humanity of those coming home to their final resting place at the Hurricane Katrina Memorial. "We ironically know these 19 because of the horrific thing that happened to them after their death, the desecration of their bodies," said Monique Guillory, president of Dillard University, a historically Black private liberal arts college, which spearheaded the receipt of the remains on behalf of the city. "This is actually an opportunity for us to recognize and commemorate the humanity of all of these individuals who would have been denied, you know, such a respectful send-off and final burial. " The 19 people are all believed to have passed away from natural causes between 1871 and 1872 at Charity Hospital, which served people of all races and classes in New Orleans during the height of white supremacist oppression in the 1800s. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Free P2,000 GCash eGift UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo The hospital shuttered following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The remains sat in 19 wooden boxes in the university's chapel during a service Saturday that also included music from the Kumbuka African Drum and Dance Collective. A New Orleans physician provided the skulls of the 19 people to a German researcher engaged phrenological studies - the debunked belief that a person's skull could determine innate racial characteristics. "All kinds of experiments were done on Black bodies living and dead," said Dr. Eva Baham, a historian who led Dillard University's efforts to repatriate the individuals' remains. "People who had no agency over themselves." In 2023, the University of Leipzig in Germany reached out to the City of New Orleans to find a way to return the remains, Guillory said. The University of Leipzig did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "It is a demonstration of our own morality here in New Orleans and in Leipzig with the professors there who wanted to do something to restore the dignity of these people," Baham said. Dillard University researchers say more digging remains to be done, including to try and track down possible descendants. They believe it is likely that some of the people had been recently freed from slavery. "These were really poor, indigent people in the end of the 19th century, but ... they had names, they had addresses, they walked the streets of the city that we love," Guillory said. "We all deserve a recognition of our humanity and the value of our lives."
