Barely one year after we learned that the Penn Museum had the remains of two children murdered in the 1985 MOVE bombing, the University of Pennsylvania tried to quickly and quietly bury the remains of over a dozen other Black Philadelphians whose bones they had kept in the basement of the Penn Museum for decades. Recently, the museum acknowledged that their research showed they actually have the remains of 20 Black Philadelphians in the Morton Cranial Collection.
The University of Pennsylvania has petitioned Philadelphia County’s Orphans’ Court to get permission to bury the crania that an esteemed Penn Medicine alumnus had, in their words unethically acquired. At a hearing this Thursday, February 2, the public has a chance to support us in stopping this.