Dive Brief:

• Three enlarged cut-out photos of lynched African-Americans were hung from a gate and tree at the University of California-Berkeley over the weekend, but the point of the depictions is not clear.
• The photos included the names of the lynching victims, the dates of their deaths, and the #ICantBreathe Twitter slogan of protests against the grand jury decisions in the police killings of two unarmed black men.
• Because the photos were hung anonymously, they could have been put up with malicious intent against protesters, or they could be a form of protest against violence against African-Americans, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Dive Insight:

Student protests of the police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York are roiling emotions across the political spectrum, so it’s not inconceivable that the Berkeley display may come from a race-hating perspective. The photos were quickly taken down by students and police. Police are investigating the incident, but haven’t identified who put up the photos. One of the photo cutouts is of Laura Nelson, who was raped and then hung from a bridge with her son in 1911, after he was accused of shooting a sheriff.