PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After more than 150 years, some Black Philadelphians will soon get the proper burial they were denied when they died.
The Samuel G. Morton Cranial Collection consists of over 1,300 human skulls that were gathered in the early 19th century.
"They were collected by a pseudo-scientist who used that collection to justify white supremacist views of race," said Christopher Woods, the Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, where the skulls have been stored since the 1960s.
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He says they were used in the classroom for anthropology lessons, and dozens of those skulls were from Philadelphians and enslaved Cubans.
"A number of these individuals may have been born slaves, as well. We knew that we really had to revisit our responsibility here and the ethics of our possession of these individuals," Woods said.
Following a period of community feedback and public criticism over the housing of the skulls, the museum formed a committee to evaluate what to do with them.
The museum has now decided to bury the skulls belonging to 19th century Philadelphians in Philadelphia.
"We're quite hopeful that we will be able to repatriate the Black Philadelphians to a historically Black cemetery in Philadelphia," Woods said.
Woods says they're also working to repatriate skulls to Cuba. In the meantime, he says they are focusing on how to properly and appropriately steward human remains.