Harvard Professors Express Outrage After Black Faculty Members’ Portraits Are Defaced


Police at Harvard University are investigating what they are calling a hate crime that occurred on Thursday. Harvard professors expressed shock and outrage after they found portraits of several black professors vandalized. They say the incident is racially motivated because a campus rally for black students was held just a day before it happened.

According to a report from CNN, someone defaced several portraits of black faculty members with strips of black tape. The portraits were housed in the Wasserstein Hall of the campus. As of the time of this writing, police haven’t identified any suspects and no arrests have been made, a Harvard Law School spokesman told the local news station.

Information from Harvard’s official website described the portraits as being a part of a long-standing tradition at the school. The portraits consist of over 180 faculty members from different races throughout the law school’s history. However, only portraits of black professors were targeted. Vandals didn’t deface all the black portraits, and some were left untouched. Officials at the prestigious Ivy League university said they don’t know why some professors were singled out or who’s responsible, WSVN wrote.

“Expressions of hatred are abhorrent, whether they be directed at race, sex, sexual preference, gender identity, religion or any other targets of bigotry,” the Morgan and Helen Chu Professor of Law and the Dean of Harvard Law School, Martha Minow, said in a statement.

Word of the incident quickly spread around the Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus, and students quickly rallied in solidarity with their professors. A.J. Clayborne, who will graduate next year, was particularly upset and he expressed how he felt in an email that was sent to CNN. In the email, he told the publication that the response on campus was “fairly overwhelming” and that many students “are shocked.” He said that students met to organize a rally shortly after the incident.

“Speaking as a student of color, I know that while I am hurt and saddened, I am not surprised,” Clayborne wrote. “This is merely a symptom of the greater systemic racism that currently permeates this law school and legal institutions in general.”

As pointed out in a report from the Guardian, the incident comes at a moment when college students around the country are demanding action against the entrenched white supremacy and racism they say still pervades campus life.

Professors targeted in the incident expressed gratitude for the support of the students and were pleased with how they responded.

“There has been an outpouring of warm wishes for the affected faculty from Harvard Law students, some of whom posted signed messages of support,” said Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin, a professor of constitutional law. “I am so proud of the students for reacting with love and kindness, for showing leadership, and for valuing inclusion.”

“I was shocked to see portraits of black faculty members defaced today in an apparent response to the peaceful protest organized by Harvard’s black students on yesterday,” the director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute, Dr. Ronald Sullivan Jr., commented. “My shock and dismay, however, were replaced with joy and admiration when I saw the lovely notes of affirmation and appreciation that Harvard law students placed on our portraits.”

Meanwhile, a group of Harvard law students are calling for the faculty to drop their official shield, which they say honors a family who made their fortune through slavery.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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