It s very likely that some of the people whose remains Morton collected were born into slavery, Woods said.
In a report released April 8, the committee shared a series of recommendations that include apologizing for collecting the remains and, whenever possible, returning them to their descendants and communities of origin as a step towards atoning for the racist, unethical, and colonial practices which were integral to the formation of these collections.
Woods, who joined the museum s staff April 1, issued an apology on behalf of the museum.
Bombing victim s remains used in forensics class
As writer and organizer Abdul-Aliy Muhammad explained in that piece, the bones were given to former University of Pennsylvania professor Alan Mann, a forensic anthropologist and the museum s curator at the time, to help determine if they belonged to Tree Africa, who was 14 when she was killed in the bombing.