RECKONING

Princeton to Remove Woodrow Wilson’s Name From Prestigious School for ‘Racist Thinking’

The university’s president wrote that Wilson’s racist actions were “significant and consequential even by the standards of his own time.”

The president of Princeton University announced Saturday that the school would remove the name of former President Woodrow Wilson from its prestigious public policy school. Christopher Eisgruber wrote, “the trustees concluded that Woodrow Wilson’s racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or college whose scholars, students, and alumni must stand firmly against racism in all its forms.” The school’s board of trustees had considered removing Wilson’s name from the school in 2015 after a student protest and occupation of the building. The recent protests over police brutality resurfaced the reconsiderations of Wilson’s legacy. Eisgruber cited Wilson’s reversal of the integration of the civil service as evidence of racist actions that were “significant and consequential even by the standards of his own time.”