The VCU team will conduct DNA analysis on the bones and rebury them, hoping to restore their dignity.
Acknowledging its “grave injustice” against Black patients, Virginia Commonwealth University apologized Friday for the grave robbing and discarding of bodies in the 1800s and the 1968 transplant of a man’s heart taken without consent.
The university’s board of visitors approved the resolution in an effort to center the voices that too often have been silenced, VCU said.
In the 1800s, the Medical College of Virginia procured cadavers for dissection by illegally digging up bodies in Black cemeteries in Richmond. When the bodies were no longer of use, they were cast into a nearby well.
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The skeletons of at least 44 adults and nine children were recovered in 1994. But VCU did not allow archaeologists time for a full investigation, and some human remains were left in the well, which is now buried somewhere beneath the Kontos Medical Sciences Building.
“VCU humbly recognizes and deeply regrets the historic inequity and systemic marginalization of individuals as they do not reflect the society VCU works to advance — one in which people of diverse backgrounds and experiences are given the dignity and respect their humanity deserves,” the university said in a statement.
In 1968, a team at the Medical College of Virginia led by Dr. Richard Lower performed the first human-to-human heart transplant in the American South.
A Black laborer, Bruce Tucker, arrived at the hospital with a severe head injury. The doctors deemed his condition too grave for him to survive.
The transplant team removed his heart and gave it to Joseph Klett, a white businessman. It was later determined that neither Bruce Tucker nor his family consented to the transplant.
The story became the focus of the 2020 book ”The Organ Thieves” by former Richmond Times-Dispatch journalist Chip Jones. VCU assigned the book to its freshmen this year.
When the book published, Jones asked VCU to publicly apologize to Tucker’s family.
“I’m glad that VCU and its leadership have made this acknowledgement of such pain and really injustice to this Black man and his family,” Jones said Friday. “There’s no way to justify from an ethical or moral point of view how he was treated and how his family was mistreated by never being told.”
Tucker’s family didn’t know the heart had been removed until they were told by a funeral director, Jones said.
VCU sent a letter to Tucker’s family on Friday notifying them of the apology and inviting them to help create an on-campus memorial, a university spokesperson said.
VCU plans to commission a plaque, funded by VCU School of Medicine faculty members, to honor Tucker’s role in the history of heart transplantation and to be placed at VCU Medical Center.
The university’s apology “won’t bring back Bruce Tucker, and it won’t assuage the hurt and trauma that is still felt by his son and some of his family members,” Jones said.
Tucker’s son, Abraham Tucker, could not be reached for comment on Friday.
From the Archives: Scenes from Virginia Commonwealth University in the 1970s
12-21-1977: Students on VCU campus.
In April 1977, the Ezibu Muntu dancers performed at Shafer Court at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond as part of the annual Spring Fling celebration weekend. The dance group, which started in 1973 with a donation from VCU, aims to preserve African culture and history in Richmond.
03-23-1974 (cutline): These two were among about two dozen persons who streaked at VCU yesterday.
03-03-1975: VCU dining hall
12-04-1975: VCU fashion students hang out in their dorm room. Students in the photo: Tracey O'Neill, Joey Koffler, and Sandy Haines watch Rebecca Berry lay out sewing pattern.
12-04-1975 (cutline): Students now can design and pain murals, using VCU supplies, in residence halls. Brenda Woods, freshman, leaves message on colorful "Hang en" board at Rhoads Hall.
09-14-1973: VCU students' bikes parked at VCU campus.
12-01-1971 (cutline): VCU's school of business building contains 146,344 square feet of space. Construction on $3.8 million, five-story facility was started in November, 1969.
03/01/1973 (cutline): Workmen putting up topside addition to the VCU library--adding two floors to the building.
11-30-1973 (cutline): Students at VCU used this idea to add some color to the institutional walls of the Theresa Pollak Art Building. They turned dull walls into arresting designs of supergraphics in color combinations such as orange and terra cotta, violet variations and blue, yellow and green. The continuous geometric graphics extend over classroom doors as well as elevator doors.
08-27-1970 (cutline): Virginia Commonwealth University's new gymnasium has been completed and is being broken in before the fall semester starts. The $1.5 million structure contains athletic facilities that will accomodate 12,000 students when in full use. Here, a physical education student tries out the pool's diving board as other students await their turns. A name and dedication date for the new building have not yet been set.
07-06-1972 (cutline): Classroom bridge would be linked to VCU's School of Business Administration. In foreground is lot on which social sciences building is to be constructed.
01-29-1975 (cutline): Residences on South Side (at left) of Floyd Avenue will be torn down for new campus center. $7.7 million building will be located across the street from VCU's James Branch Cabell Library (at right).
08-24-1977 (cutline): A record number of Virginia Commonwealth University Evening college students, 1,451 signed up here yesterday.Many of those students attend college part-time. And thousands of others, both full-time and part-time, will stand in line doing the same for the rest of the week. VCU officials expect about 18,000 students will register for classes beginning Monday.
08-22-1972 (cutline): Mathematics classes at VCU involve the use of individual study areas and cassette tape recorded lectures. Several subjects have been augmented by tapes produced by faculty members. Four members of the VCU faculty are designing a series of educational tapes for a major publishing company.
03-03-1977 (cutline): Mychelle Gray, Cherryl Claiborne and Katherine Jessup work on designs.
10-06-1971 (cutline): A new "coffee house" sprung up on the campus of VCU this week, offering students a taste of culture along with their coffee. The mobile unit, sponsored by the Womens' Committee of the Richmond Symphony, is getting things rolling for the community orchestra as part of "Symphony Week" which continues through Friday.
03-26-1978: VCU Campus plan map.
Eric Kolenich
Reporter
Eric Kolenich writes about higher education, health systems and more for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He joined the newspaper in 2009 and spent 11 years in the Sports section. (804) 649-6109
