Law Students, Faculty Protest Racial Incidents

Approximately 400 students and faculty at Harvard Law School (HLS) gathered outside Harkness Commons yesterday to protest a series of recent racially charged incidents and to urge administrators to take action.

The Black Law Students Association (BLSA) organized the silent protest. Students walked out of their classes at 11:30 a.m. and distributed fliers for an hour and a half that called upon the administration to respond to the recent incidents.

BLSA President Inez S. Canada, a second-year law student, said there was a diverse group of participants, including various HLS administrators.

“I thought it really showed a strong statement to the community that it’s not just BLSA affected by these events,” Canada said.

HLS Dean Robert C. Clark, Dean of the J.D. Program Todd Rakoff, HLS Dean of Students Suzanne Richardson and Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74 were among those on hand.

The protest also involved new HLS admits, present for the second day of the HLS official visiting program, Canada said.

Yesterday’s “Call to Action” was not the first move taken by BLSA in response to the recent conflicts.

Last Thursday, BLSA published a letter to Rakoff and Clark in the Harvard Law Record, listing five incidents of “racial harassment” this year.

In the most recent string of events, first-year law student Kiwi A. Camara used the racial epithet “nig” in a post on a website run by HLS students.

On April 1, first-year law student Matthias Scholl sent an anonymous e-mail to classmate F. Michelle Simpson, who had complained about Camara’s use of “nig” on the website.

Classmates tracked the e-mail to Scholl after conducting an online search.

In the e-mail, which the self-described civil libertarian Scholl said was only intended to defend the right to free expression, Scholl wrote: “I have actually begun using the ‘nigger’ word more often than before the incident.”

On April 2, a flier was placed anonymously in nearly 80 first-year law students’ mailboxes. The flier contained a swastika, anti-Semitic comments and a reprint of Scholl’s e-mail to Simpson.

The origin of the flier is still unknown.

Simpson said that yesterday’s rally was necessary in spite of support from faculty and administrators.

“Even though the administration is attempting to reach out to us, we want to let them know that we’re still pursuing action to keep it going,” Simpson said.

Thursday’s BLSA letter to HLS administrators included nine demands, including the creation of an “Office of Multicultural Affairs” and a new policy banning racial harassment.

The administration met one of these demand—for deans to meet with BLSA representatives—on Saturday.

“Since the publication of the letter, they have been really receptive,” said Canada. “We met to see what steps should be taken.”

HLS spokesperson Michael Armini said the meeting was very successful.

“We’re at the beginning of a process to build a constructive dialogue,” he said.

Armini declined to comment on the specifics of the meeting, including whether the administration agreed to meet any of BLSA’s other demands.

Clark, Richardson and Rakoff did not return calls for comment yesterday, but Armini said Clark is “very optimistic” about the dialogue.

The deans have plans to meet with BLSA again later this week, Armini said.

The administration, he said, is also sending an e-mail today inviting other student groups to set up meeting with administrators to discuss related concerns.

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.