After the tape was removed, positive notes from Harvard law students began to show up next to pictures of black professors at the school. (Image courtesy of RoyallMustFall)
CAMBRIDGE – Harvard University police on Thursday began investigating whether strips of black tape placed over portraits of black Harvard Law School professors adorning a wall outside a lecture hall was merely vandalism or something more sinister.
Images of the taped-over portraits surfaced on social media Thursday morning, a day after dozens of student activists marched along Massachusetts Avenue to Porter Square to meet with fellow demonstrators from Tufts University in Medford as part of a rally to show solidarity with black activists on other campuses.
Harvard law student Jonathan Wall posted images of the taped-over portraits online via Twitter.com:
“The defacing of the portraits of black professors this morning is a further reminder that white supremacy built this place, is the foundation of this place, and that we never have and still do not belong here,” wrote Michele Hall, a student who also referred to another student movement that seeks to scrub the Harvard Law seal of symbols taken from the family crest of Isaac Royall Jr., a Colonial-era slaveholder whose estate endowed the school at its founding.
Hours after reports about the defaced portraits appeared, Harvard Law Dean Martha Minow wrote in a campus-wide email that she felt “saddened and angered” by the act and invited students and faculty to a noon meeting Thursday.
How the tape got on the portraits is under investigation, according to a university police spokesman.
After the tape was removed, students began putting colorful Post-it notes inscribed with positive comments next to the pictures.
After the tape was removed, positive notes from Harvard law students began to show up next to pictures of black professors at the school. (Image courtesy of RoyallMustFall) 
