WHAT’S THE STORY?
THE world-renowned Princeton University in the USA is to retire the name of President Woodrow Wilson from two of its institutions, Wilson College and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, due to Wilson’s avowed racist and segregationist policies.
It’s a real “wow” moment in the ongoing debate about statues and commemorations of racists precipitated by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests following the killing of George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis last month.
For an establishment of Princeton’s prestige to take such an action against an American President of such renown, who was also President of Princeton itself, is a remarkable moment in the BLM campaign.
WHO WAS WILSON?
THE 28th President of the USA was renowned as one of the better holders of the office, but he always had pronounced racist views. His maternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister from Paisley and his own father was also a Presbyterian minister. Raised in Augusta, Georgia and in South Carolina, Wilson studied at the College of New Jersey which later became Princeton University. He gained a law degree but was determined to become a professor and duly did so.
Having risen through the academic ranks, Wilson became President of Princeton, which was always associated with Presbyterianism and where one of his predecessors was the Rev John Witherspoon, one of the Founding Fathers of the USA who hailed from Gifford in East Lothian.
Wilson was not narrow-mindedly religious, and allowed the first Jew and first Catholic into Princeton, but fiercely resisted any black people coming to study there even as other educational institutions were doing so.
Standing as a democrat he became Governor of New Jersey in 1911, but held the post for less than two years as he won the 1912 election to become President of the USA.
He was a progressive reforming President who led the nation throughout the First World War, at first maintaining neutrality but eventually taking America into the war on the side of the Allies.
DID HE NOT FOUND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS?
AFTER the successful conclusion to the war, Wilson agitated among the Allies for the creation of an international organisation dedicated to peace and progress. The League of Nations was very much his creation and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for doing so.
Yet the USA never entered the League because Republicans in Congress refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. Wilson then suffered a massive stroke in 1919 and was unable to contest the 1920 election which was won by Republican senator Warren Harding.
Demoralised and in poor health, Wilson retired from public life and died in 1924.
WHAT IS PRINCETON SAYING?
IN a statement released at the weekend, Princeton took aim: “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 backwards in its pursuit of justice. He not only acquiesced in but added to the persistent practice of racism in this country, a practice that continues to do harm today.
“Wilson’s segregationist policies make him an especially inappropriate namesake for a public policy school. When a university names a school of public policy for a political leader, it inevitably suggests that the honoree is a model for students who study at the school. This searing moment in American history has made clear that Wilson’s racism disqualifies him from that role. In a nation that continues to struggle with racism, this University and its school of public and international affairs must stand clearly and firmly for equality and justice. The School will now be known as ‘The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’.
“The University had already planned to close Wilson College and retire its name after opening two new residential colleges currently under construction. Rather than ask students in the College to identify with the name of a racist president for the next two years, the University will accelerate retirement of the name. The College will instead be known as ‘First College’ in recognition of its status as the first of the residential colleges that now play an essential role in the residential life of all Princeton undergraduates.”
Where Princeton leads, others follow, in which case at least a dozen presidents known to have racist and segregationist views may well suffer “unmemorialisation”.
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