Why Princeton students want Ivy to drop Woodrow Wilson name, portraits
After a 32-hour sit-in outside the president's office, school officials are now considering some of the protesters' demands.
Tents are erected outside of Princeton University's Nassau Hall, where students are staging a sit-in, Thursday, in Princeton, N.J. The protesters from a group called the Black Justice League, who staged a sit-in inside university President Christopher Eisgruber's office on Tuesday, demand the school remove the name of former school president and US President Woodrow Wilson from programs and buildings over what they said was his racist legacy.
Julio Cortez/AP
Princeton University will consider expunging former United States President Woodrow Wilson鈥檚 name from facilities and school programs after signing a deal with student demonstrators who feel he has a racist legacy.
Student demonstrators and top administrators at New Jersey's prestigious Ivy League school solidified the agreement after members of the Black Justice League student organization staged a 32-hour sit-in outside聽Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber鈥檚 office.
Mr. Eisgruber said Princeton appreciated the "willingness of the students to work with us to find a way forward," .
The demonstrators demanded the removal of Mr. Wilson鈥檚 name and image from public spaces, and a name change for Princeton鈥檚 Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. They also wanted the school to establish a cultural competency and diversity training program and select a space for 鈥渃ultural affinity鈥� groups.
The school now says it will consider removing a mural of Wilson, begin conversations about Wilson鈥檚 legacy, and boost cultural competency training for faculty. Administrators agreed not to impose any formal disciplinary action against the student protesters who peacefully left the office.
At the time of his presidency (from 1913 to 1921), Wilson was considered one of the most prominent leaders of the Progressive Movement. However, he publicly supported racial segregation, which was legal at the time and part of public policy in all 50 states.聽Segregation in public accommodations was not banned until decades later, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
While in office, Wilson organized a private screening of the film "Birth of a Nation," which was widely criticized by the NAACP at the time and later became a recruiting tool for the Klu Klux Klan. As Boston University in a 2013 article on the university website:
With quotations from Wilson鈥檚 scholarly writings in its subtitles, the silent film denounced the Reconstruction period in the South when blacks briefly held elective office in several states. 聽It hailed the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as a sign of southern white society鈥檚 recovery from the humiliation and suffering to which the federal government and the northern 鈥渃arpetbaggers鈥� had subjected it after its defeat in the Civil War. 聽The film depicted African-Americans (most played by white actors in blackface) as uncouth, uncivilized rabble.
While the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People publicly denounced the movie鈥檚 blatant appeals to racial prejudice, the president organized a private screening of his friend鈥檚 film in the White House for the members of his cabinet and their families. 鈥淚t is like writing history with lightning,鈥� Wilson observed, 鈥渁nd my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.鈥�
Demands for the erasure of Wilson鈥檚 name from Princeton property and programs coincides with a wave of protests at US colleges over the treatment of minority students. Wilson served as president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910.
This report contains material from Reuters and the Associated Press.