Harvard's President Condemns 'Acts of Hatred' Aimed at Black Professors

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Black tape was recently placed over the portraits of several African America law professors at Harvard University. Students discovered the act of vandalism Thursday at the school’s Wasserstein Hall.

University President Drew Faust released a statement on the incident Friday morning saying, “We join together as a university in deploring the defacing of portraits of African American faculty at the law school. Such acts of hatred are inimical to our most fundamental values and represent an assault on the mutual respect essential to our purposes as a community of learning and inquiry.”

In an email to the school’s law community, Dean Martha Minow said she was “saddened and angered” by the act. “You see things like that and it hurts you,” Leland Shelton, president of the school’s Black Law Student Association, said of the unsettling discovery.

Harvard University police are investigating the matter. They have yet to identify a suspect. The motivation behind the act is not clear.