They are also the joint subject of a two-year-old Title IX investigation at the U.S. Department of Education, initiated by a Spelman student who said a Morehouse student sexually assaulted her.
The complainant said many other students were subject to a "sexually hostile environment" because of the two colleges' indifference toward "reports and/or incidents of sexual violence of which [they] had notice."
This is the correct way to deal with alleged violations of Title IX. But some students have given up on using the rule of law, instead descending into vigilante mobs.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that signs were posted last week on both campuses that accused specific male students of rape and officials of protecting rapists. A day later, Morehouse's chapel - named after Martin Luther King Jr. - was defaced with spraypaint.
It read "Practice what you preach Morehouse + end rape culture." Campus police removed the vigilante signs and "covered the graffiti with a brown tarp."
The attempt to anonymously intimidate and defame people continued (where else?) on social media, where vigilantes shared names or even entire lists of anonymously accused Morehouse students using the hashtag #WeKnowWhatYouDid.
One Twitter account was set up specifically to anonymously identify specific students as rapists, with not even the least shred of evidence.
It explicitly asks visitors to send in "name and info" of students, and it will publish them, no questions asked. This account is in blatant violation of Twitter's rules against targeted harassment and intimidation, yet has not been removed by Twitter.
For the respect and safety of survivors we are not releasing the information of who reported these names. This is about holding perpetrators accountable. All submissions are anonymous.
— #WeKnowWhatYouDid (@WeKnowWhatYou) November 9, 2017
Leaders at Morehouse and Spellman could have responded to this brazen vandalism and mixed-media witch hunt - against people who have not been accused through proper channels, school-specific or legal - by promising an investigation and sanctions against the vandals and witch-hunters.
These students used methods of intimidation and destruction, and they should fear punishment. You'd think students at historically black colleges would be familiar with the sordid history of false allegations against black men in the name of protecting women.
Instead, administrators coddled these reckless rumormongers and vandals.
Morehouse President Harold Martin made a weak pass at defending the presumption of innocence for accused students in the face of reckless and unsupported claims when he spoke to students last week.
In a short address, he made abundantly clear he will favor (non-Morehouse) accusers over (Morehouse) accused, and that he views his own students as brutes.
"Underlying that hashtag is clearly a belief that there's a population that does not feel heard," Martin said, excusing them from the burden of actually filing a formal complaint. Indeed, he said no one has come to his office to make a report.
Comment: It would be far more fruitful if these allegations were properly handled by law enforcement agencies.