PRINCETON, N.J. ― Students staged a protest Wednesday inside the office of Princeton University’s president, demanding the school remove the name of former school president and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson from programs and buildings over what they said was his racist legacy.
Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber told the students he agreed with them that Wilson was racist and that the university needs to acknowledge that, according to a video posted to YouTube. But a school spokesman said the president also told students it is important to weigh Wilson’s racism, and how bad it was, with the contributions he made to the nation.
Wilson was president of Princeton from 1902 to 1910 and served as New Jersey’s governor from 1911 to 1913, when he entered the White House. The Democrat was a leading progressive but supported segregation, including appointing Cabinet members who segregated federal departments.
About 30 Black and White students, from a group called the Black Justice League, took part in the protest, demanding a range of changes to improve the social and academic experience of Black students. Scores of other students joined in the protest outside the building.
Princeton is home to the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, his name is on one of the school’s residential colleges and there is a mural of Wilson in a dining hall that the protesters want removed.
“Having to walk by buildings that (have Wilson’s name), having to walk by his mural, having to live in residential colleges that didn’t want our presence on campus, that’s marginalizing,” said Asanni York, a Black junior who is majoring in public policy. “People are hurt by that. All this matters because, at the end of the day, Black people’s feelings matter just as much as any other people’s feelings matter.”
The protesters also want the Ivy League university to institute cultural competency training for staff and faculty, and add a cultural space on campus dedicated to black students.
