Harvard Law School Professors' Portraits Emblazoned With #LastWords

Protesters covered professors' faces with dying words, like "I can't breathe."

By
SUSANNA KIM and ELIZABETH KREUTZ
December 9, 2014, 5:18 PM ET
4 min read

— -- Among the recent protests in response to the killing of unarmed African-American men by police, one reaction is turning heads among Harvard Law School faculty.

Portraits of professors in the main building of the law school have been covered with fliers containing the last words of victims who were either killed by police or whose controversial deaths embroiled the political justice system. The quotes end with the hashtag #lastwords.

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Among the images in Wasserstein Hall for this display is a portrait of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who is a former professor and dean of Harvard Law School.

Kagan's photograph is covered by the words "You shot me," spoken by Oscar Grant III, whose death was portrayed in the 2013 film "Fruitvale Station." He was unarmed when he was shot and killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer on Jan. 1, 2009.