Two months after the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza on South Fraser Street was vandalized with the logo of a white supremacist group, State College police are continuing to look for the individuals who were responsible.
On Wednesday, the department renewed its call for anyone with information about the vandalism to come forward. Police are offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
The reward includes $2,000 in contributions from the Downtown State College Rotary Club and an anonymous donor.
Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime, which under Pennsylvania law is called ethnic intimidation. Anyone who may have information is asked to contact the State College Police Department at (814) 234-7150, by email or by submitting an anonymous tip through the department’s website.
On April 16, the logo of a white supremacist organization classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group was stenciled in a red substance over an image of King on the mural, which depicts photos from the civil rights leader’s 1965 visit to Penn State. The same group’s also appeared on graffiti around State College and Bellefonte in January.
The MLK Plaza vandalism was first reported to police at 2:35 p.m. on April 16 and a borough public works crew quickly worked to clean the mural.
Video footage subsequently released by police showed three masked “persons of interest” exiting the stairwell of the adjoining Fraser Street Parking Garage.
Following the vandalism, faith congregation leaders organized a “Unite Against Hate” vigil at the plaza, while community and business leaders denounced the defacement of the mural and expressed their commitment to a welcoming and inclusive community.
This weekend, the plaza will bring community members to celebrate Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the emancipation of the last remaining enslaved African Americans on June 19, 1865.
The State College NAACP Chapter and the borough will host a celebration at 1 p.m. on Saturday, with live music, song, dance, poetry and spoken word with performances by local artists, State College Area School District and Penn State students and other community members.
It is one of several Juneteenth events scheduled around State College this weekend.
