The Wilson scholars were asked to offer their opinions by an 11-member university committee formed after student protesters occupied the university president's office
PRINCETON - Nine historians have weighed in on the legacy of President Woodrow Wilson following student protests that accused the former Princeton University president of racism.
The Wilson scholars and biographers were asked to offer their opinions by an 11-member Princeton University committee formed after student protesters in November occupied the university president's office for 32 hours demanding, in part, that Wilson's name be excised from campus
The Woodrow Wilson School of Planning and Public Policy is named after the university's 13th president.
Princeton's problem: President Woodrow Wilson's 'racist' legacy
Of the nine scholars, three are Princeton graduates. The scholars have written a collective nine books specifically about Wilson and several more that include academic examination of him. Two scholars are women and both are professors of African-American studies.
Their views on Wilson vary and the full versions of each report is available on Princeton University's website.
"Woodrow Wilson was a white supremacist," wrote Adriane Lentz-Smith, an associate professor at Duke University. "To say this of a southern-born Democrat from the early twentieth century is no more remarkable than observing that Georgia clay is red or that hound dogs bay."
John Milton Cooper, Princeton graduate and author of two books on Wilson, offered a different take.
"The correct way to assess Wilson's racial attitudes is as a fairly typical white Northerner of his time,'' Cooper wrote. "This means that he shared their near blindness toward racial injustice and impatience with efforts to arouse concern about what was happening along the color line."
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Kendrick A. Clements, former University of South Carolina professor and author of three books on Wilson, offered this perspective.
"Wilson exemplified aspects of the racism that has permeated American history," Clements wrote. "But he also proposed that students and faculty confront all of the nation's problems in their classrooms and seek solutions for them."
Members of the Black Justice League occupied Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber's office in part because students wanted the university to publicly acknowledge Wilson's racist history and do away with his name at the graduate school and residential college.
The university agreed to examine Wilson's legacy and give recommendations to the Board of Trustees.
Wilson was Princeton's president 1902 to 1910 and president of the United States from 1913 to 1921.
The letters are one part of the committee's efforts to examine the Wilson's legacy and the role that plays at the university. The committee also is soliciting opinions from the public through the Wilson Legacy website. The committee also is scheduling in-person conversations on campus.
Keith Brown may be reached at kbrown@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBrownTrenton. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.