Princeton opens dialogue on alumnus Woodrow Wilson, racism

The Democrat was a leading progressive, credited with creating the Federal Reserve system, guiding the U.S. into World War I and trying to preserve a lasting peace with his “Fourteen Points” and the League of Nations, which won him the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize.

[...] was he being racist when he denied a black student admission or was he shielding the student from an environment where he would be ignored by classmates?

In one of the essays, Paula Giddings, a professor of Afro-American studies at Smith College, wrote, “In my opinion, his segregationist and racially exclusive policies as president of Princeton University and as the 28th President of the United States are sufficient grounds for the refusal to honor his name in an institution that values diversity and the standards of a liberal arts education.”

Kendrick Clements of the University of South Carolina wrote, “Woodrow Wilson exemplified aspects of the racism that has permeated American history, but he also proposed that students and faculty confront all of the nation’s problems in their classrooms and seek solutions for them.”