A group of students from Tulane University’s School of Medicine is gaining attention after they gathered together at a former slave plantation in Louisiana to pose for a photo they say powerfully illustrates their “ancestral resiliency.”
So Ledet proposed the idea to his Tulane classmates, emphasizing how the powerful image would illustrate “this connection between America’s past and America’s present,” as well as promote unity between the students as they pursue a career path that he says lacks diversity. “Initially, I didn’t understand what was going on because the emotions rushed through me,” Labat admits. “I started to cry thinking about [how] these people who we’re descendants of had the harshest life and the harshest conditions and wanted nothing but better for themselves and better for their children.”
Though not every student who is involved with SNMA at Tulane University could attend — Labat says only 15 out of 65 people were there — the impact of the photos was no less powerful. “There’s a time gap in between where we’re standing and the house behind us that’s undeniable, that you have to recognize,” he continues. “There is a time gap that is literally filled by [the] landscape.”