Court: Harvard can be sued for distress over slave photos

By PHILIP MARCELO
Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — A Connecticut woman who says she’s descended from slaves shown in widely-published, historical photos owned by Harvard can sue the Ivy League university for emotional distress. Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday partly vacated a lower court ruling that dismissed a complaint from Tamara Lanier over photos she says depict her enslaved ancestors. The court concluded the Norwich resident can plausibly make a case for suffering “emotional distress” from Harvard and remanded that part of the claim to the lower court. But the high court upheld the lower court’s ruling that the photos are the property of the photographer and not the subject.