Harvard Law panel seeks to scrap official seal tied to slave owners
Source: Reuters
Harvard Law panel seeks to scrap official seal tied to slave owners
Reuters
By Barbara Goldberg
21 minutes ago
(Reuters) - A Harvard Law School committee on Friday recommended scrapping its official seal because it features the crest of a slave-owning family that helped endow the oldest U.S. university, saying it is an offensive symbol of a racist past.
The committee took up the issue after a student group called Royalls Must Go demanded that the law school remove the seal. The emblem is adorned with the crest of the Royalls, a family of plantation owners and merchants whose donation helped establish Harvard's first law professorship.
. . .
Criticism over the seal intensified in November after portraits of black faculty members of Harvard Law School were apparently vandalized. An investigation by campus police into the defacing of the images with black tape proved inconclusive.
The move to get rid of the seal is the latest example of a historical emblem in the United States being removed or altered after critics called attention to long-ignored or unnoticed racist associations.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/harvard-law-panel-seeks-scrap-official-seal-tied-214923447.html
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Yale College (the undergraduate school) is divided into twelve residential colleges (please don't call them dorms 
; they have amenities such as their own libraries, theaters, etc.). Calhoun is, of course, named for slaveholder John C. Calhoun. A debate is raging over whether to change its name. Already the college's master (yes, the term "master" has come under fire as well ) has removed stained-glass windows depicting Calhoun's slaves.
If so, a lot of places named "Jefferson" or "Washington" will have to re-think it as well.
Interesting read. Here is the Royall seal:
Which has been appropriately mocked in this fashion:
And here is the Haaaahvaaad seal:
I remember that, back in the day, people used to (sardonically) cheer on the Haaahvaad sports teams with a chant of "VE-Ri-TAS! Move Your ASS!"
Nothing wrong with a little "veritas" (truth). I'd be interested to see just how they'll change the thing, if they indeed move forward. And will they get rid of the one-word motto? Just because some stupid family had the motto shouldn't ruin the concept of "truth" for everyone else.
Wonder if the Radcliffe seal is fraught with issues? If not, maybe they could just take it and use it, instead:
the Massachusetts and West Indies family of merchant and plantation slave owners.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/29b5824a49f440568254b00d2150c2dd/student-group-opposes-harvard-law-seal-citing-slavery-ties
>Democracy Now! Interview with Craig Steven Wilder, author of "Ebony and Ivy: The Secret History of How Slavery Built America's Elite Colleges", 2013. http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/29/ebony_and_ivy_the_secret_history
Interesting read. Here is the Royall seal:
And here is the Haaaahvaaad seal:
I remember that, back in the day, people used to (sardonically) cheer on the Haaahvaad sports teams with a chant of "VE-Ri-TAS! Move Your ASS!"
Nothing wrong with a little "veritas" (truth). I'd be interested to see just how they'll change the thing, if they indeed move forward. And will they get rid of the one-word motto? Just because some stupid family had the motto shouldn't ruin the concept of "truth" for everyone else.
Wonder if the Radcliffe seal is fraught with issues? If not, maybe they could just take it and use it, instead: