About 35 Black students ate dinner at the Mather House dining hall last night in a show of solidarity against the third incident of racist graffiti to appear in the house this fall.

This most recent racial slur was discovered early Saturday morning in the A entry stairwell, between the third and fourth floors.

"A specific student was targeted," Co-Master Sandra A. Naddaff '75 said. "The name was followed by the epithet, 'nigger.'"

Harvard police detectives, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, dusted for fingerprints and took photographs of the graffiti on Saturday morning, Naddaff said.

The person targeted is Latino, not African-American, according to house committee chair Tom P. Gavin '95.

On a typical evening in the house dining, one would find very few Black students eating, according to Mather resident Marvin A. Coote '95. But last night was an entirely different story. A group of about three dozen Black students, many of whom are not Mather residents, dined in one large group in the middle of the hall.

"I'm here because there's an injustice that has occurred," said North House resident Sarah G. Vincent '97. "There's a certain point when the community of students has to get involved."

In the first of the three incidents of racial graffiti, resident tutor David Porter, who is Black, found the word "nigger" scrawled across the name card on his door last month.

The second incident involved a scrawled slur reading. "Die Nigger," found above the entrance to the house weight room earlier this month.

After the second incident, Mather House residents met last week to sign a statement condemning the two racial slurs.

Between 250 and 300 students out of the more than 400 house residents have signed the statement, according to Naddaff.

In response to the latest incident, Mather House staff convened a meeting for Black and Latino house residents yesterday with a counselor from the University Health Services.

"It was a forum for the students more directly targeted [by the incident] to express their concerns," Naddaff said. About 14 students attended the two-hour meeting, according to Naddaff.

"The Black community at Mather is very small," said house resident Ailey Y. Penningroth '97. "And so it was necessary to call a special meeting. So we could get together and talk about it."

The Mather staff is planning a house-wide meeting about the racial incidents following winter break.

"This isn't like setting off a fire extinguisher," Gavin said. "This is a hate crime. The criminal repercussions are severe."