A group of students at Harvard Law School are calling for the school to change its official seal. The students say that the seal, depicting three bushels of wheat, is an image taken from the family seal of Isaac Royall Jr. who donated his estate to endow the first professorship in law at Harvard.
Royall owned dozens of slaves at his home in Massachusetts and much of the family’s wealth was generated through the slave trade.
Students have held protests on campus saying that the racist crest should not appear on official documents, buildings, and merchandise of the law school. The student group demanding a change in the official seal is called “Royall Must Fall.”
Alexander J. Clayborne, a student leader of the group, told the Harvard Crimson, “These symbols set the tone for the rest of the school and the fact that we hold up the Harvard crest as something to be proud of when it represents something so ugly is a profound disappointment and should be a source of shame for the whole school.”
