Princeton Agrees to Consider Erasing President Woodrow Wilson's Legacy
Administrators at Princeton University have agreed to consider renaming public spaces dedicated to former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson due to pressure from African American student activists demanding more racial sensitivity on the school's campus.
Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber announced Thursday night that the school would begin a process to consider expunging Wilson's legacy, reports Reuters. Following his announcement, students ended their 32-hour sit-in at his office in effort to pressure school officials to acknowledge racism within Wilson's legacy and institute measures to improve cultural sensitivity.
Before being elected to the White House, Wilson served as the president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, reports NBC News. He later became noted as a leader of the Progressive Movement. However, the 28th U.S. president supported racial segregation and allowed his cabinet to re-segregate federal government departments. He also forced job seekers applying to be civil servants to submit photographs of themselves, which African Americans at the time argued was a tactic to weed them out.
In turn, protest organizers at the Ivy League university in New Jersey urged Princeton to remove Wilson's name off of buildings and his image from public areas. They also called for the renaming of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Under pressure, university leaders agreed to initiate a request from student organizers with the Black Justice League to remove a mural of Wilson from a school dining hall, in addition to implementing a cultural diversity training for faculty and designating space on campus for "cultural affinity groups."
Furthermore, Princeton administrators said it would stop referencing people who oversee its residential colleges as "master," and will instead call them "head."
"We appreciate the willingness of the students to work with us to find a way forward for them, for us and for our community," Eisgruber said in a statement. "We were able to assure them that their concerns would be raised and considered through appropriate processes."
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