Harvard Students: Law School's Seal 'A Source Of Shame'
CAMBRIDGE (CBS) -- A group of Harvard Law students are seeking to change the school's seal because of its connection to a slaveholder.
The Harvard Law School crest, featuring three stacked wheat sheaves, is the coat-of-arms of Isaac Royall. According to the school, Royall was a wealthy plantation owner and slaveholder who helped endow Harvard.
A Facebook group called "Harvard: Royall Must Fall," which has more than 275 members, says it's working to remove symbols of slavery from campus.
Posted by Harvard: Royall Must Fall on Friday, October 23, 2015
"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," Alexander J. Clayborne, one of the involved law students, told The Harvard Crimson.
The Crimson also talked to a Harvard historian, who said that while Royall was "a brutal slaveholder," it would be a mistake to change the seal because it's part of the school's history.