Princeton drops Woodrow Wilson's name from school due to 'racist thinking'

Princeton University will remove President Woodrow Wilson’s name from its public policy school and a residential college, the school’s president announced.

Christopher Eisgruber announced the institution’s decision in a statement published on the school’s website. He cited Wilson’s “racist views and policies” as the main factor in the decision.

"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,” the statement read.

Protests over the New Jersey Ivy League school's name have been ongoing since 2015 when students occupied the president’s office and demanded Wilson’s name be removed from Princeton buildings. The school responded by forming a committee to study Wilson’s legacy at the school.

While the committee initially recommended a number of reforms, the names were left on the buildings. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death while in police custody, as well as the nationwide protests against police brutality that followed, Princeton’s trustees agreed to revisit the matter.

“Princeton is part of an America that has too often disregarded, ignored, or excused racism, allowing the persistence of systems that discriminate against Black people,” the statement continued. “When Derek Chauvin knelt for nearly nine minutes on George Floyd’s neck while bystanders recorded his cruelty, he might have assumed that the system would disregard, ignore, or excuse his conduct, as it had done in response to past complaints against him.”

The trustees cited Wilson’s “segregationist policies,” by which he segregated multiple federal agencies and his cabinet after decades of integration following Reconstruction. The New York Times noted t... (Read more)

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