In June of 2016, African-American Yale employee Corey Menafee was arrested after  smashing a cafeteria window depicting an image of slavery with a broom stick.

While helping clean the tables of one of Yale’s cafeterias, Menafee noticed an image he did not particularly like, and immediately decided he was going to do something about it.

“I don’t know, something inside me said, you know, that thing has to come down,” explained Menafee.

This local activist had taken action against Yale’s stained glass windows of the Calhoun residential college dining hall for their depiction of slavery unwarrantedly still being shown in the university’s building.

The stained-glass window depicted an image of slaves carrying bales of cotton.

His reason for doing so? Menafee says, “It’s 2016, I shouldn’t have to come to work and see things like that.”

Controversy briefly broke out within the Yale student body regarding whether or not the act was justifiable, with protesters made up of community activists, Yale faculty and student groups in the area.

The general consensus even of  the school itself finds it is only fair that a man, especially that of color, should not have to work around an image as such everyday.  

In speaking with the Yale Police Department, Menafee explains, “No employee should be subject to coming to work and seeing slave portraits on a daily basis”

Rightfully so, Yale dropped the original charges against their beloved employee, and though he resigned from the position, Yale continued to offer the hero his job back at the university.

As well as all charges being dismissed, the university made an agreement with Menafee to disregard restitution for the broken window, as well as to make no further public statements about the incident or what followed.

Though his act was impulsive and potentially harmful, we can only appreciate the risk this man took for his values to revolutionize Yale’s cafeteria for not only the students, but all affected by the image.