A group of students called ‘Royall Must Fall’ are asking the school to stop using the coat of arms because it includes elements drawn from a slaveholding family’s coat of arms.

In 1781, the slave owner Isaac Royall Jr. in his will left his land to Harvard College and so allowed the formation of Harward Law School. Because of that, when the university celebrated its 300th anniversary, it included the three garbs of wheat from the coat of arms of the Royall family.

‘These symbols set the tone for the rest of the school and the fact that we hold up the Harvard crest as something to be proud of when it represents something so ugly is a profound disappointment and should be a source of shame for the whole school.’ said one of the law students involved.

The school has assembled a special committee that will deal with this demand of the students and will decide whether the seal should be discarded by March 2016.

‘Symbols are important. They become even more important when people care about them and focus on them.’ said Martha L. Minow, dean of the law school.