Early Monday morning, on May 19, the house of New Orleans Voodoo queen Marie Laveau went up in flames. The fire had broken out in the kitchen, and firefighters arrived on the scene around 4 a.m.

They were not specimens, she continued, “not numbers.” The heads were returned to New Orleans about a week ago after a two-year journey, said Eva Baham, a retired Dillard professor.

The craniums of 19 Black Americans, whose heads were severed and sent to Germany for “research” in 1872, are being returned to New Orleans.