By Mary Tompkins

The University of Maryland club tennis team was suspended indefinitely and is under investigation after a Howard University club tennis player discovered a racist graphic in shared tournament materials over the weekend. 

Ahead of a two-day invitational tournament hosted in College Park, Toni Rachal, president of Howard University’s club tennis team, noticed the image initially in a shared Google document. The image was an altered Maryland state flag featuring two Ku Klux Klan hoods in the red sections of the flag’s design, a source familiar with the incident confirmed to Stories Beneath the Shell Monday.

Howard’s club tennis team released an official statement following the discovery Monday, questioning why the graphic appeared in UMD documents. The statement called for a formal investigation and public apology, as well as asked that UMD donate any tournament funds to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

UMD administrators condemned the actions of those involved and apologized for the harm that the graphic inflicted. The university said that “UMD’s director of Recreation and Wellness issued an apology to the club presidents of all the participating teams.”

The source told Stories Beneath the Shell Monday that “this incident was an oversight from the whole club because nobody noticed the flag until the Howard students pointed it out.” 

The Office of Student Conduct and the UMD Police Department are now handling the incident, as students on both Howard and UMD’s campuses call for accountability. It is unclear how many UMD students, and club tennis players, are involved.

UMD’s Black Student Union described the incident as “a direct assault on the dignity, safety, and belonging of our students” in a social media statement on Monday. The organization called on the university to “commit to long term systemic accountability and active harm restoration.” 

Maryland’s club tennis program has a constitution that states, “it is the duty of each one of the team’s members to represent Maryland Club tennis and the University of Maryland, College Park in the best way possible and to uphold the honor of the university.”

Maryland’s club team forfeited all matches at the invitational tournament, which featured teams including Howard University, Johns Hopkins University and Loyola University Maryland.

Students from participating schools competing in the tournament and UMD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The investigation remains ongoing and this story will be updated with more information.

Featured image: A University of Maryland sign near Baltimore Ave. Photo by Audrey Bengtson.