海角大神

A coat of arms designed to honor the Royall family, depicting three bundles of wheat, has served as the seal of Harvard Law School since 1936.

But now the school is re-examining the 80-year-old emblem amid fresh outrage at the slave-owning family. Isaac Royall Jr.聽left a bequest in 1781 that later endowed Harvard鈥檚 first law professorship in the late 18th century.聽聽

"We are not judging Isaac Royall, a man of the 18th century, by standards of the 21st century," wrote the聽12-member committee after months of open meetings and deliberation. "Instead, we are asking whether an institution in the 21st century should be represented by a man of the 18th century whose only legacy was his money."

Their 11-page recommendation concluded, "An official symbol ...聽must more closely represent ,聽which the current shield does not."

The nine signers of the brief included Janet Halley, the current Royall Professor of Law. A tenth committee member concurred and the other two submitted a four-page dissenting opinion.

Martha Minow, dean of the law school, created the committee of students, professors, and alumni in response to student group聽, inspired by the #RhodesMustFall group that campaigned for the removal of a Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel College, Oxford.

Students have protested the seal since last fall, echoing similar Black Lives Matter protests in colleges and legislatures across the country that call for a reexamination of flags, statues, buildings, and other memorials to Confederate leaders,聽slaveholders, or KKK members.

Some defenders of the symbols say聽their meaning can be independent of any racist history, while others argue that removing the symbols merely whitewashes the stain of slavery.

鈥淧eople should have to think about slavery when they think of the Harvard shield; but from now on, with a narrative that emphasizes the enslaved, not the Royall family,鈥� wrote committee member Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of legal history, in her dissenting opinion.聽

鈥淲hen you rename, you facilitate forgetting,鈥� argued Alfred Brophy, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, in an interview with聽Story Hickley of 海角大神聽last month.

He was discussing calls to rename the University of Alabama's Morgan Hall, named in 1911 for state Senator and KKK leader John Tyler Morgan.

"Building names are gauges of how we think, but renaming doesn鈥檛 solve racism," he said.

Harvard has undergone a series of changes in recent months in an effort to address concerns about the racial climate. In late February, Harvard College officially abandoned the title 鈥渉ouse master鈥� on the grounds that the designation, used for generations at some Ivy League institutions, is antiquated and reminiscent of slavery. Several other universities, including Yale, Princeton and M.I.T., have decided to abolish or to consider abolishing the title as well,

The decision to change the seal now rests with the Harvard Corporation.