BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Effigies of black lynching victims found hanging on a Northern California college campus have sparked debate over whether the images are powerful protest art or just plain tasteless and racist. 
 
 The photographic images were found Saturday morning hanging at two prominent spots on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. They were discovered a few hours before a demonstration against police brutality organized by a black student union was to start. Police are investigating, but officials say they still don't know who hanged the images or the motivation. 
 
 "It's unclear if this is racially motivated effort or an effort at something else," campus spokeswoman Claire Holmes said. 
 
 Social media sites hosted debates between those who viewed the effigies as art and those offended by the images. 
 
 Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, a UC Berkeley professor of social psychology who studies prejudice and stereotyping, said he sees no redeeming quality in the images hanged Saturday. 
 
 "Given the volatility of the protests, I think it's misguided regardless of the protest," Mendoza-Denton said. "It's inflammatory and is triggering upset and anger." 
 
 Others, however, said the effigies may have been a form of "guerrilla art" and that images of lynching victims have been used by artists in the past. The rap group Public Enemy used a photograph of two lynching victims on the cover the single "Hazy Shade of Criminal" released in 1992. 
 
 Leigh Raiford, an associate professor of African American studies at UC Berkeley, told the San Francisco Chronicle (http://tinyurl.com/lo44y4c) that the effigies may have been created to provoke thoughtful discussion about historical black repression. 
 
 "To me this suggested a really powerful public art installation that was trying to provoke people to make a historical connection between the history of lynching, state violence against black folks and the contemporary situation that we're faced with around police brutality and these non-indictments," 
 
 A black student union representative said the group is also mystified about who hanged the effigies and why. 
 
 "We hope that it's someone who wanted to bring attention to the issue," said Spencer Pritchard, 21, a Berkeley student who helped organize the Berkeley demonstration. 
 
 About 300 people participated in the peaceful Berkeley protest Saturday afternoon. Many of them later joined a larger demonstration in Oakland that was mostly peaceful, though police arrested 45 people. ||||| BERKELEY -- Three effigies of African-Americans hanging from a noose were found on the UC Berkeley campus Saturday morning ahead of a noontime "#blacklivesmatter" protest in Sproul Plaza, a UC Berkeley spokeswoman confirmed. 
 
 Amy Hamaoui, interim executive director of UC Berkeley's communications and public affairs, confirmed the effigies and also said that university officials are looking to see if there are more effigies. 
 
 The cardboard cutouts had the names of historical lynching victims and the date. It's unclear if the effigies were placed by people supporting the protests as a political statement or from a group opposing the protests. 
 
 Two of the effigies were found hanging from the arches at famed Sather Gate, and another was discovered in a tree near Bancroft Lane, Cal integrative biology student Eniola Abioye said. 
 
 Police took possession of two of the effigies and students took one, said Pastor Michael McBride of the Way Christian Center and co-director of Intervarsity's Black Campus Ministries at UC Berkeley. Campus police could not be immediately reached for comment. 
 
 "This is racial terror they are experiencing," McBride said. "I don't care if it was a white person, a black person, a blue person, if it was an adversary or ally, these images strewed across campus have terrorized my students." 
 
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 Over the past week, the campus has been a starting point for demonstrators protesting grand jury decisions not to indict two officers who killed unarmed black men in New York and Ferguson, Missouri. A "#blacklivesmatter" rally was scheduled at noon Saturday in Sproul Plaza, and will continue as scheduled, Abioye said. 
 
 David DeBolt covers breaking news. Contact him in Richmond at 510-262-2728. Follow him at Twitter.com/daviddebolt. ||||| Protesters in Berkeley, Calif. echoed marchers in Washington, D.C. and New York City calling for justice for unarmed blacks shot by white cops. Organizers worked hard to keep the protest peaceful after nights of destruction. Chris Wiggins for USA TODAY 
 
 Students protest on the UC Berkeley campus. (Photo: Chris Wiggins) 
 
 As thousands marched to end police brutality in Washington D.C., and New York City on Saturday, three cardboard cutouts of African-Americans were found hanging in effigy by nooses on the Berkeley campus of the University of California. 
 
 School spokeswoman Amy Hamaoui told the AP the effigies appear to be connected to a noon-time demonstration nearby planned to coincide with a national protest against police brutality. The effigies, two male and one female, included names of lynching victims and the dates of their death. Hamaoui said it's unclear who hanged the effigies and police are looking into the matter. "We are unsure of the intent," Hamaoui said. 
 
 As of late afternoon, no suspect had been identified. "It certainly could have been racially motivated, so we're taking it very seriously and are very interested in finding out who did this and what the intention was," UC Berkeley spokeswoman Claire Holmes tells USA TODAY. 
 
 Fusion.net reports the female effigy of a lynched woman was identified as Laura Nelson from 1911, and included the hashtag "#ICantBreathe. Police officers took two of the effigies down soon after the student learned of them at 9:10 a.m, Holmes says. Students took down the third. 
 
 Many on Twitter reacted with confusion and disgust. 
 
 "No one knows who put effigy up it was not CAL BSU students or ally," tweeted Michael McBride, pastor of the Way Christian Center in Berkeley, who walked with protesters. "The impact is the same: racial terror & it's unacceptable." 
 
 "This happened on the campus of the #1 Public Institution," wrote user @itsMumbeeezy. "Don't tell me that Racisim isn't alive." 
 
 User @WhoGonStopMePR wrote "whether intentions were good or bad, the delivery IS distasteful. As an AfAm alum, I DON't support this." 
 
 Hundreds of protesters in Berkeley, aided by the hashtags #berkeleyprotest and #Ferguson2Cal on Twitter, marched up and down Church street beginning at noon, chanting "the whole damn system is guilty as hell" and "I think that we will win." Police presence was minimal. 
 
 Berkeley protesters merged with an Oakland contingent at 2 p.m. On campus, "there were no incidents from the protests," says Holmes. 
 
 This morning at UCBERKELEY campus an effigy of a Black man was found hanging at one of the entrance gates. pic.twitter.com/Jcak10o2yY — Rosa A. Clemente (@rosaclemente) December 13, 2014 
 
 Contributing: Chris Wiggins, The Associated Press 
 
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– Amid nationwide protests against police brutality, effigies of three black people hung by their necks turned up on UC Berkeley campus in northern California yesterday—but was it racism or politically inspired art? "We are unsure of the intent," a school spokeswoman tells the AP. The effigies, one female and two male, had the names of lynching victims on them and the dates when they were killed. One effigy with the hashtag #ICantBreathe was named after Laura Nelson, who died by lynching in 1911, Fusion reports. (See a tweeted photo of an effigy here.) "It certainly could have been racially motivated, so we're taking it very seriously and are very interested in finding out who did this," another school rep tells USA Today. No one has claimed responsibility, and police are investigating. Meanwhile, people are debating whether the effigies are designed to support or terrorize protesters. "This is racial terror they are experiencing," an on-campus Berkeley pastor tells the Oakland Tribune. "These images strewed across campus have terrorized my students." But others call it "guerilla art" reminiscent of Public Enemy's 1992 single, "Hazy Shade of Criminal," the cover of which showed two lynching victims. "To me this suggested a really powerful public art installation" that connects lynching, "state violence against black folks," and the "situation that we're faced with around police brutality and these non-indictments," a Berkeley black studies professor tells the San Francisco Chronicle. Hundreds of protesters marched yesterday in Berkeley, without incident, under minimal police presence. (Protests there last weekend led to violence and six arrests.)