Princeton University will no longer be associated with the name Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the US. The Ivy League university will be renaming a faculty named after him over his racist history.
This comes after a decision was made to remove his name from the institution’s School of Public and International Affairs due to his racist beliefs and policies.
Princeton university decision due to resist history
During his term as the president, between 1913 to 1921, he favored Southern segregation and argued that this would help hold peace in the region. He implemented segregation of federal workers, which resulted in African Americans being demoted and fired from the position they held at the time. Decades of racial progress in the US were rolled back during his administration.
He also hosted the screening of Birth of a Nation in the White House, which celebrated the origins and foundation of the Ku Klax Klan. He accepted the brutal racial segregation to go on during his administration and went further by supporting and implementing policies that hurt African Americans during that time.
Protests across the US
The decision to remove his name comes amidst nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by the Minneapolis Police Department. The killing, which was captured in a video that went viral in the US and across the globe, highlighting police brutality that is commonly meted towards minorities in the US.
His death has reverberated across the US, with many joining the Black Lives Matter movement calling for racial equality in the country. The protests across the country have also targetted controversial historical figures such as past presidents who held racist beliefs and confederate general statues have also been targeted and brought down across the US.
In a statement by the university president, Christopher Eisgruber, they highlighted that the decision to change the name of faculty was after a thorough, and well thought out. He also said, going forward, the faculty will be known as the School of Public and International Affairs.
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