Overview

• Smithsonian Institution's former anthropologist, Ales Hrdlicka, collected over 280 brains, many without consent, for a 'racial brain collection' in the early 20th century.
• Many of the brains were taken from Black people, children, and people from institutions such as the city's almshouse.
• Only five of the brains have been returned to families or cultural heirs, with the majority still held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
• Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III has denounced the institution's prior practices and stated that it is his goal to repatriate as many human remains as possible.
• A Smithsonian task force focused on human remains is expected to make recommendations soon.