Tamara Lanier, the woman suing Harvard University over 19th century photos of her enslaved ancestors received the support of several descendants of the professor who authorized the images for the purpose of supporting his theory that Black people were inferior to white people.

According to The Associated Press, over 40 of professor Louis Agassiz's kin drafted a letter to the college's president and Board of Overseers on Thursday demanding the Ivy League college return photos of an African slave named Renty and his daughter Delia to their proper owners.

A portion of the statement reads: "As direct descendants of Louis Agassiz, we celebrate many of his groundbreaking contributions to natural science. We also lament the widespread damage he wrought with the theory of polygenism, which he used to promulgate the supposed inferiority of African people. For too many years we have ignored his role in promoting a pseudoscientific justification for white supremacy. We see this as a collective failure to live up to our values of anti-racism and compassion. Now is the time to name, acknowledge and redress the harm done by Louis Agassiz."

As Blavity previously reported, Tamara Lanier filed a suit against the institution in March after she believed Harvard was profiting from Renty's likeness. Since the rediscovery of the images in 1976, Harvard has used them both for research and to generate profit. A 2017 conference booklet featured the photo as well.

In a statement obtained by The AP, Lanier thanked Agassiz's family for their support.

"We hope that the lesson of confronting the past head on is one that that Harvard can learn from Papa Renty. Slave owners profited from his suffering — it's time for Harvard to stop doing the same thing to our family."

When pressed for a comment regarding the letter and the ongoing dispute, a representative from Harvard's Peabody Museum wrote to The AP in an email that the institution "cannot comment on the subject of ongoing litigation." However, spokeswoman Rachael Dane said Harvard "has and will continue to come to terms with and address its historic connection to slavery."

Delivering their remarks to a bevy of reporters Thursday outside of a building named after Agassiz, CBS Boston reports the photos are tucked away in a museum and are classified as cultural artifacts.

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