Dear Members of the Harvard Community,
Recent weeks have brought yet more devastating tragedies across our nation. The heartbreaking killings of Adam Toledo and Daunte Wright, two young people who had so much of their lives yet to live, and the gut-wrenching testimony recounting George Floyd’s final minutes, have focused this country again on the killings of African Americans and other people of color by police. The list of those whose names we know is long, and a full list would include many others whose names we do not know, and whose deaths did not occur in broad daylight, in full view of multiple witnesses, or with cell phone or body cameras recording.
No words can capture the hurt, fear, anger, and grief felt about these tragedies by so many in our community, across this country, and around the world. It is appalling and unjust that people in our nation, by virtue of the color of their skin, face a greater risk of being killed in a police encounter if they are driving with an expired tag or a burnt-out taillight, if they make a rolling stop, if they somehow arouse a store clerk’s suspicion, or if they are just coming home from a family dinner.
The terrible impact of these tragedies goes far beyond the lives lost, children deprived of their parents and parents deprived of their children. In a system in which police have vast discretion to stop people on suspicion of minor offenses, so many people of color in this country live with an ever-present sense of vulnerability because of the possibility that a police encounter will result in tragedy.
Harvard’s motto, Veritas, requires a commitment to truth. The truth is that racism runs through the history of the United States and continues to have deadly effects on people of color in this country today. The truth is that our society is far from eradicating the evil of racism, whatever the verdict in the latest trial.
We, as a community, must stand against racism. We must commit ourselves to the unfinished work of building a just society—one in which everyone’s rights and safety are protected, and everyone’s dignity is honored.
Sincerely,
Lawrence S. Bacow
President, Harvard University
Tomiko Brown-Nagin
Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Nancy Coleman
Dean, Harvard Division of Continuing Education
George Q. Daley
Dean, Harvard Medical School
Srikant Datar
Dean, Harvard Business School
Emma Dench
Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Francis J. Doyle III
Dean, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Douglas Elmendorf
Dean, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Alan M. Garber
Provost, Harvard University
Claudine Gay
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
William V. Giannobile
Dean, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
David N. Hempton
Dean, Harvard Divinity School
David F. Holland
Acting Dean, Harvard Divinity School
Rakesh Khurana
Dean, Harvard College
Katie Lapp
Executive Vice President, Harvard University
Bridget Terry Long
Dean, Harvard Graduate School of Education
John F. Manning
Dean, Harvard Law School
Sarah M. Whiting
Dean, Graduate School of Design
Michelle A. Williams
Dean, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
