The president of Princeton University announced the academic institution will remove former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s name from one of its schools because of his “racist thinking.”
On Saturday, President Christopher Eisgruber released a statement that said the Ivy League institution would remove Wilson’s name from its public policy school and residential college, citing his history supporting segregation.
“The trustees conclude that Woodrow Wilson’s racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or college whose scholars, students, and alumni must firmly stand against racism in all its forms,” Eisgruber said. “Wilson’s racism was significant and consequential, even by the standards of his own time. He segregated the federal civil service after it had been racially integrated for decades, thereby taking America backward in its pursuit of justice.”
Princeton University’s board of trustees voted to remove Wilson’s name from the school and residential building on Friday. The policy school will be renamed as the “The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs” and the college will be renamed as “First College.”
As the 28th president of the United States, Wilson, regarded as one of the first 20th-century “progressives,” proposed a League of Nations, which evolved in concept to become the United Nations. While in office, three amendments to the Constitution were ratified: the 17th Amendment, which made it so U.S. senators were directly elected by popular vote; the 18th Amendment, which led to the prohibition of alcohol; and the 19th Amendment, which protected women’s right to vote.
Wilson spearheaded projects to expand government financial regulations over industry, signed antitrust legislation, and created the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve.
However, Wilson supported several racist policies as president, including segregating federal workers, and he even hosted a private screening of Birth of a Nation, a silent film depicting the Ku Klux Klan as heroes reclaiming the South, at the White House. The film demonized and stigmatized black people in the U.S.
In 2015, the school’s board of trustees first discussed complaints from students about using Wilson’s name on buildings and created a committee to study Wilson’s legacy at Princeton.
