Princeton Students Want Woodrow Wilson's Name Off Buildings

PHOTO of Woodrow Wilson courtesy of whitehouse.gov

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Last week, after students at Georgetown University staged a sit-in, the university met their demands to change the names of two buildings because of ties to slavery by the former presidents of the university.

It was one of many college protests across the country seeking racial equality on campuses.

Thursday night, after a 32-hour sit-in by students, Princeton University says they will consider students’ demands to remove the name of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States and a Virginian, from buildings at their campus. (Although he was born in Staunton, Wilson was raised in Georgia and South Carolina.)

Wilson was a member of the Class of 1879 at Princeton and president of the university from 1902 to 1910. His name is on the university’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Wilson College.

His name is a familiar one to Alexandrians — it adorns the massive Woodrow Wilson Bridge spanning the Potomac River from Alexandria to Maryland. The bridge is named in honor of Wilson, who, when elected in 1912, was serving as the governor of New Jersey but was a native of Virginia.

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Wilson served as president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. NBC News reports this week that Wilson “allowed his cabinet to re-segregate federal government departments and also forced civil servant applicants to include photographs, considered by African Americans at the time as a move to weed them out.”

According to an agreement, Princeton University Christopher Eisgruber will write to the chair of the University Board of Trustees ”to initiate conversations on removing Wilson’s name from campus buildings,” the Daily Princetonian reports. Eisgruber will also write to Head of Wilson College Eduardo Cadava to request that he consider removing Wilson’s mural from Wilcox dining hall.

Eisgruber has noted that some reforms have already been put into effect, such as the replacement of the title of “Master” with “Head of the College” at the university.