This photo, featured in the Harvard University Gazette on April 28, 1972, was taken after members of the Pan- African Liberation Committee evacuated Massachusetts Hall following a weeklong strike against the institution that was ultimately “the longest building occupation in Harvard history” (Gazette 1). These students were protesting Harvard’s direct investments in Gulf Oil, a corporation that indirectly supported Portugese enslavement of Angolan people. 

The Gazette noted that, in the moment that after students left Massachusetts Hall, 

The occupiers then marched across the Yard, dressed the statue of John Harvard in Ku Klux Klan robes, and burned a cross in front of it. Then, followed by a group of 1,500, they marched across Massachusetts Avenue, through the Holyoke Center Arcade, down Mt. Auburn and Arrow Streets to Massachusetts Avenue, then back into the yard to the area in front of Massachusetts Hall, to continue the rally” (Gazette 1). 

This protest was marked by regional solidarity. Importantly, involvement of black Harvard students in the Pan- African liberation Committee symbolizes the broad impact of Harvard students’ radical efforts. Work of the Pan- African Liberation Committee against Harvard began in 1971 when, “the PALC publicly challenged the university to revisit the ethical foundations of its investment policies” (Parrott). In response to pressure from the PALC, “Bok affirmed his and the board's responsibility for the fiscal health of the university over any engagement with issues of international justice, no matter personal feelings on the matter” (Parrott). On April 17th, 1972, the PALC threatened to escalate the protest if Harvard did not divest, and Bok still refused it. So, black students and local members of the PALC were forced to take radical action, during the week of April 28th, 1972 and occupied Massachusetts Hall for seven days. 

By placing KKK robes on the statue of John Harvard, participants in this movement challenged racial inequality in our global economic system, while challenging Harvard’s investments as an indicator of white supremacist ideals. This protest could not have taken place without solidarity and action by other activists in the Boston area and so, the symbolic meaning of this particular image transcends Harvard’s campus to include black radical action across the nation.