Someone defaced the portraits of Harvard Law's black professors

An as yet unidentified person defaced the portraits of Harvard Law School’s black tenured professors Wednesday night, Boston’s WCVB5 reports.

As evidenced by photos posted by students to social media Thursday morning, the perpetrator placed a single strip of black tape over the professors’ faces. Only the black professors’ portraits that hang in the hallways outside Wasserstein Hall appear to have been targeted.

In response to yesterday’s protests, cowards have covered the faces of Harvard Law’s Black professors w/ black tape. pic.twitter.com/IuNd9ckucj

— the other one (@imfromraleigh) November 19, 2015

“This morning at Harvard Law School we woke up to a hate crime,” second-year law student Michele Hall wrote for Blavity. “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.”

The defacing of the portraiture could have been a direct response to a rally held on Harvard’s campus Wednesday in support of black student activists at the University of Missouri, UNC, Yale, and elsewhere. Harvard University police are investigating the matter, The Boston Globe reports.