Black Justice League: Remove Woodrow Wilson's name from Princeton

[philosslayer]

Last edited Thu Nov 19, 2015, 12:37 AM - Edit history (1)

PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) — Students staged a protest Wednesday inside the office of Princeton University's president, demanding the school remove the name of former school president and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson from programs and buildings over what they said was his racist legacy.

Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber told the students he agreed with them that Wilson was racist and that the university needs to acknowledge that, according to a video posted to YouTube. But a school spokesman said the president also told students it is important to weigh Wilson's racism, and how bad it was, with the contributions he made to the nation.

Wilson was president of Princeton from 1902 to 1910 and served as New Jersey's governor from 1911 to 1913, when he entered the White House. The Democrat was a leading progressive but supported segregation, including appointing Cabinet members who segregated federal departments.

Princeton is home to the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, his name is on one of the school's residential colleges and there is a mural of Wilson in a dining hall that the protesters want removed.

http://news.yahoo.com/princeton-students-protest-presidents-office-change-194850789.html


After GWB and Reagan, Wilson was arguably the most racist US President. Go BLM!!!!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

1. Very few actions were more racist than interring Japanese-American citizens like FDR did

Start stripping his name from everything as well, immediately, or consider yourself on the list.

[philosslayer]

2. President Roosevelt's actions...

While deplorable, took place during a time of war. They were a paranoid reaction. President Wilson's actions, however, were unprovoked. They were born out of deep seated racist tendencies. There is a difference.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

3. Sounds like whitesplaining to me

I'm checking the list.

[philosslayer]

4. I have no idea what "whitesplaining" is

If you decide to discuss the issue rationally without throwing around trite terms, I'm glad to listen.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

5. The bottom line is, FDR did what he did, "justification" or not

Time to start stripping his name from shit, regardless of anything positive he might have done, ever. That's just the way it has to be.

[philosslayer]

7. Okay, you hate the Black Lives Matter movement

We get it.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

9. What a leap

I just want someone stripped of accolades because they committed the greatest act of racism of any single executive in the twentieth century. He topped Wilson by a mile in that regard. And you don't care?

We should also talk about Lincoln while we're at it.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

12. Good call on Lincoln

I was thinking the same thing.

[hobbit709]

73. Nothing like trying to rewrite history.

Next you will want to rename all the places named after the founders who were slaveowners.

[REP]

13. There's no "but." Imprisoning Japanese, Italian and German Americans -

including those born in America - because of the actions of countries to whom they had negligible ties to, other than shared ancestry - was an astounding act of bigotry and racism. FDR was in many ways a great man, but this act alone forever taints whatever good - and there was much good - he accomplished.

[struggle4progress]

35. Wilson's racism is particularly obnoxious in several ways:

Wilson's first presidential campaign reached out to black America at a time when white supremacy was sweeping the country, and Republicans were continuing to back away from the promises of equality. This seemed especially significant at the time, because in the years following the civil war, the Democrats had often been closely associated with white supremacy. When Wilson took office, the Federal civil service was one of the few employment arenas which really did not discriminate much based on race, because hiring decisions were based on civil service exams. That Wilson then set out to segregate the civil service, and to drive black America from government employment, therefore represented not only a real betrayal of campaign promises to the black community but also a gigantic step back from the gains that had been won in the second half of nineteenth century

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

43. Wilson was not a great guy

He was not my favorite person of the era, but even my two favorite people of that time, William Jennings Bryan and Teddy Roosevelt were conflicted men with aspects of their belief system I disliked.

That does not negate the fact that Wilson was a pivotal person in international affairs in the wreckage of WW1. The problem I have is no one wants to have a discussion anymore, just a swift end to the issue thru erasure from existence.

[struggle4progress]

53. I don't question his entire legacy, but I think we should start telling the whole truth

I really doubt Wilson's name will be pulled from Princeton buildings: he was, after all, both president of the university and later president of the nation, two real distinctions by any measure

Since history is a real and important source of information on human affairs., nobody of sound mind wants to erase and purge it. Yet the national mythologies that we teach have purged real history for generations

I'm happy to see confederate portraits taken from courtroom walls, confederate monuments moved from public squares to museums or old cemeteries, and the old rebel rally flag pulled from government poles. None of that seems to me to purge the past: it merely recognizes that such symbols of white supremacy don't merit our civic approval

[SickOfTheOnePct]

54. Exactly, and well said

Acknowledge and teach the WHOLE story; not just for Wilson, but for all of our historical figures. They were all humans, meaning they all had faults, sometimes grievous faults. There is no shame in telling the whole story, and in fact, it's necessary to do so in order to avoid the same faults.

[Hortensis]

92. Wilson didn't just reflect the culture of his times, though.

He reinstituted segregation in federal employment 50 years after departments were desegregated and people were comfortable working together. Black employees were herded together where whites didn't have to associate with them. One employee was more problematic -- because of the nature of his work he had to stay as he was, so they built a cage around him for "separation."

Wilson also as a governor instituted forced sterilization for prisoners and the "developmentally delayed."

And much more that is despicable.

I admire much of what this very remarkable and very flawed man did, but I absolutely support removing his name from most monuments. He is part of our history but in no way represents our ideals.

[Chitown Kev]

55. Wilson received 50% of the black (male) vote too.

Shocked the Republicans at that time.

I do think that your statement that "Wilson's first presidential campaign reached out to black America" is a little simplistic, though.

Yes, the Republicans were backing away and even though Teddy Roosevelt was also in the race (the best that a 3rd Party ever did in the Presidential race) and was considered by some to be an alternative to Taft, black (men) were still pissed at Roosevelt about the Brownsville incident and didn't see Roosevelt as being any friendlier than Taft.

Black leaders (including William Monroe Trotter and W.E.B. Dubois) approached Wilson and said they were considering endorsing him.
Wilson made black leaders no clear campaign promises that I am aware of that he would do anything and black leadership at that time decided to roll the dice a bit and quite a few endorsed Wilson.

So that was a failure of black leadership, as well...a black leadership that was gaining no traction and had no trust in any of the presidential candidates.

[struggle4progress]

56. '... In the campaign of 1912, Wilson promised African-Americans

“not more grudging justice but justice executed with liberality and cordial good feeling” ...'
http://www.woodrowwilson.org/education/for-students/1916-election/the-peoples-experience-african-americans

[Chitown Kev]

58. That's nothing very specific, though

I mean, it wasn't like Wilson could come out for an anti-lynching law or anything (Teddy Roosevelt had done at least that much, at one point)

https://books.google.com/books?id=HVoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA162&dq=august+1912+the+crisis&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEQQ6AEwCGoVChMI8d2_wNSbyQIVxEEmCh2dtAxA#v=onepage&q=august%201912%20the%20crisis&f=false

Dr. Dubois acknowledged as much in his endorsement (pp.181-182 of the August 1912 issue of The Crisis). He didn't really trust anything that Wilson said but was tired of the Republican bullshit (interestingly, Dr. Dubois said that he preferred Eugene Debs...quite naturally)

[struggle4progress]

59. That's an interesting editorial

WEB had a wonderful combination of literary talent and optimism, that carried him a long way, but perhaps he also had some real luck now and again

I recall some story that, on hearing of a local lynching, he decided he should go chat with the local newspaper editor, to try to get some print opposition to the practice, so strolled downtown -- but happened on his way to see the knuckles of the lynch victim proudly displayed in the butcher's window, at which point he realized he was on a hopeless errand and immediately turned back for home

I don't really understand that time and place

[Chitown Kev]

60. Dr. Dubois was right about one thing though (pretty much)

from the editorial:

"...if he becomes the President by the grace of the black man's vote, his Democratic successors may be more willing to pay the black man's price of decent travel, free labor, votes, and education."

Dr. Dubois was kind of right about that. No Democratic president (with the exception of FDR in 1932) has ignored the black vote. Granted that we didn't get everything that we wanted (FDR would not advocate an anti-lynching law and did not sign an EO desegregating the military...but we did get Eleanor!) but Wilson was the last Democratic president that ignored and disregarded the black vote during his time in office.

[struggle4progress]

90. That could be

[Bluenorthwest]

87. Point of fact Wilson did not just segregate the civil service, he Re-segregated it after it had been

integrated. He put segregation back in place where it had previously been ended, an insanely racist action motivated by nothing but racism. One of the ugliest actions by any US President.

[struggle4progress]

88. I'm not a historian, but it had been my impression that federal opportunities

for blacks did not really exist antebellum; and that the northern "radical" Republican stance, during the war and after, was the engine of change

... Congress declared on May 3, 1802 that “after the 1st day of November next, no other than a free white person shall be employed in carrying the mail of the United States, on any post-roads, either as a post-rider or driver of a carriage carrying the mail.” In 1828 the ban was extended, under Postmaster General John McLean, to include the regulation that “if negro labor was required ‘to lift the mail from the stage into the postoffice’, it must be ‘performed in the presence and under the immediate direction of the white person who has it in custody.’” It was not until 1862 that the heightened regulation was lifted by Congress ...
http://postalmuseum.si.edu/AfricanAmericanhistory/p1.html

It was also been my impression that Wilson's actions were not limited to segregating a rather integrated civil service but also included some significant purging of black faces

[Chitown Kev]

91. I believe that re-introduction of segregation to the civil service by Wilson

applied only to the civil service in Washington D.C. but I could be wrong.

[Doctor_J]

46. did you post in the wrong thread?

What does gratuitous fdr bashing have to do with blm and the op?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

61. No I didn't

Let's see how far everyone wants to go on this.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

6. If BLM is concerned with making things better now

why are they so wrapped up in what Woodrow Wilson did nearly 100 years ago?

I'm with the President of Princeton - acknowledge Wilson's racism and the effects it had on black Americans and move on.

[yeoman6987]

19. That is not a good excuse at all

At a time when we are finally ridding ourselves of the confederacy, we need to get rid of names that are offensive to. Woodrow wilson to some is a negative. Switch the name.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

24. We'll have to agree to disagree

No one has the right to not be offended, and trying to "get rid of names that are offensive" is nothing more than trying to rewrite history.

[philosslayer]

26. So should monuments to Hitler and Stalin remained?

Or was removing them just "rewriting history"?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

29. Two of the greatest butchers in history?

No, I don't think their monuments should have remained.

Are you seriously comparing Woodrow Wilson to Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin?

And I'm with other posters - I'd like to know why you aren't holding FDR to the same standard as Wilson?

[philosslayer]

32. See post 25

[SickOfTheOnePct]

34. Is post 25

the one where you excused FDR's behavior towards the Japanese during WWII?

[philosslayer]

36. Clearly logic and reasoning is not your forte

[SickOfTheOnePct]

39. I haven't seen you

display any logic or reasoning yet.

Is that forthcoming at some point?

[TipTok]

82. ...the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

Abraham Lincoln

__________________________________________________________________________

What a racist SOB...

Watch out $5 bill. They are coming for you. Sames goes for you Lincoln, Nebraska...

It is silly to judge historical figures by the mores and standards of the modern era. That essentially removes the vast majority of all historical figures from celebration or even remembrance.

[yeoman6987]

84. Doesn't shock me at all. He was a Repug after all.

[LanternWaste]

80. Getting 'wrapped up' in history is an anathema to the under-educated...

What then is precise passage of time before concern with a thing is equivalent to 'wrapped up in something that happened 100 years ago...?" 75 years, 50? Maybe only 25?

On what objective number is that measure based on?

Indeed, getting 'wrapped up' in history is an anathema to the under-educated, as illustrated accurately by their dismissal of it.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

86. I'm sorry you weren't able to understand what I was saying

There is a difference between learning from the past and doing better in the future and getting wrapped up in the past to the point that you can't move forward effectively in the future.

It is essential that we learn from the past, yes, even about the racism exhibited by Woodrow Wilson. Teach about the good and the bad of our former learners, something that we admittedly are not good at.

But to try to rewrite history, or erase people from history is the opposite of learning from it. Pretending he didn't exist does nothing to help avoid the repeating of history.

[Yorktown]

8. Get ready to purge lots of names from lecture halls

Newton was a vicious individual
Voltaire, a homophobe
Cesar, an ethnic supremacist
St Paul condones slavery
etc

Revisionist history would be endless

[JustAnotherGen]

10. I'd settle for Confederates

Being removed from military bases.

[Yorktown]

16. Not even that

I would have fought them (inasmuch as one can be expected to carry one's opinions back in time)

but I suppose lots of Confederate generals and troops believed they were defending the South.

For example, Lee was a good general and not an ardent believer in slavery (wiki):

... In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence.

— Robert E. Lee, to Mary Anna Lee, December 27, 1856

[JustAnotherGen]

70. My dad was an awesome Green Beret - one of the first ones

His special leave put him at home in Tallladega Alabama in 1964 before he could vote from abroad. Unfortunately it fell during the 1964 election.

At the point he was a Captain and had a purple heart.

It was too dangerous for him to vote. He would have been safer in Vietnam among the Montagnards than patriotic white Americans in the deep South -It stuck in his craw until the day he died (August 2011).

It is a slap in the face to black soldiers and veterans who NEVER once went against America in battle.

And in Rochester he is buried three rows over from American soldiers (officers) from the Civil War.


Hey - at least those Civil War soldiers from Western NY appreciate that their deaths were not in vain - right? I mean he's in good company who appreciate his service to a country that pissed on him - right?

And yes - I'm making clear that even Black infantry and Navy cooks who served during WW I, WW II, Korea, and Vietnam were greater Americans than Robert E Lee - as well, as having superior service to their country. Their country - not his.

[Yorktown]

74. Thanks & congrats to your father for his service

Not familiar with Dixie history, but from what I glanced, he was a good soldier with rather fewer prejudices than most people of his time and place.

Giving his name to one or two military bases is just a way of honoring the poor southern devils who died for wrong ideas.

btw, some, like apparently Lee, thought slavery was OK because it was mentioned in the Bible. Further proof the Bible isn't a good guide for morality.

[struggle4progress]

89. I absolutely agree

[NuclearDem]

14. Is there something in the dining hall water or something this year?

And OP? You're not fooling anyone.

[philosslayer]

17. Do you want to defend President Wilsons racial legacy?

Please. By all means. I look forward to your response.

[NuclearDem]

20. Not fooling anyone.

[philosslayer]

22. Again, no specifics, just ad hominem attacks

At least TRY! C'mon. Do your best. Tell us what a great guy Woodrow Wilson was. Take a swing at the ball..

[NuclearDem]

23. Upthread you defend FDR, who had virtually identical domestic and military policy towards AAs

with the added bonus of throwing Italian, German, and Japanese Americans into internment camps.

You're fooling nobody.

[philosslayer]

25. I defended no one

I stated that President Roosevelt had reasons. Bad reasons, but reasons nonetheless. Without WWII, would President Roosevelt have interned Japanese Americans? No. President Wilsons racist actions were solely based on the fact that he could.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

41. When you say

"yes, he did bad things but...", then you're excusing, justifying and yes, defending, what he did.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

33. It is always interesting that Wilson is one of the first names that comes up....

....whenever you debate a conservative libertarian about "bad Democrats", because of his racist background, like somehow an educated Democrat is unaware of such things, or that we hold Wilson out to be some sort of God.

The playbook is predictable.

[philosslayer]

37. Is BLM rife with conservative libertarians?

Surprising.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

38. Oh they aren't

There are other people, however.....

[Travis_0004]

57. where do we stop?

Should we rename Washington DC?

Maybe get rid of jefferson on our money.

FDR needs to go also, so we dont Japanese Americans.

[notadmblnd]

15. Yeah! go BLM

Are people really wracked with so much white guilt that they would actually advocate this sillyness?

[UTUSN]

18. Fine, he was Colonial/racist, and taught me Idealism/Progressivism.

He and JACKSON taught me (never mind)

[Truprogressive85]

21. Swell guy thiat Wilson (not)

While president of Princeton University, Wilson had discouraged blacks from applying for admission, preferring to keep the peace among white students and alumni

[cigsandcoffee]

27. Woodrow Wilson advanced progressivism far more than most prior Presidents.

He was a scholar, academic, and liberal by the standards of his day. To judge him by the current results of the progress he greatly helped to bring about is one of the most unintellectual, short sighted, and incurious things I've ever read - and this from Princeton students.

Sorry, but this is both tragic and pathetic.

[Chitown Kev]

31. He advanced and extended segregation too.

Last edited Thu Nov 19, 2015, 12:29 AM - Edit history (1)

He allowed for his words to be used in the opening of arguably the most racist film ever made, The Birth of a Nation, and screened that film in the White House.

His is not an either/or legacy. He may have been progressive for (some) white folks, but not at all for African Americans.

[Chitown Kev]

28. It will be interesting to see the compromise reached on this

Last edited Thu Nov 19, 2015, 12:13 AM - Edit history (1)

Personally, even I wouldn't be in favor of eradicating Wilson's name from Princeton in that way but Princeton does need to make this acknowledgement and people need to deal with his mixed legacy.

Wonder what Sonia Sotomayor and Michelle Obama (both Princeton graduates) think about this.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

30. Agree 100%

There is a mixed legacy, and it should be acknowledged and taught.

[MFrohike]

40. This isn't BLM

The title of the article doesn't contain that phrase, nor does the body of the article. It's dishonest to claim that it's Black Lives Matter when it's a group called the Black Justice League.

[mwrguy]

42. Good

Feed the mural into the fire.

[Reter]

44. He's the monster responsible for the Federal Reserve and the Revenue Act of 1913.

Never forget.

[virgogal]

45. BLM has nothing to do with this---why bring them up?

[Nye Bevan]

47. Washington and Jefferson were racists who each owned hundreds of slaves,

never granting freedom to any of them.

If we are going to go down this road quite a few things will need to be renamed.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

48. Yep

Let's take down the Roosevelt memorial, the Jefferson memorial, the Lincoln memorial, the Washington monument, the Woodrow Wilson bridge, etc.

And BTW, JFK wasn't initially all that into civil rights either...

[X_Digger]

51. The only history that matters is by people who we judge thru today's lense and pass.

The rest? It's not important history if they weren't good people (by our standards today.)

[TipTok]

83. This place has removed my ability to judge if people are serious or not...

Poe's Law in action...

"Poe's law is an internet adage which states that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, parodies of extremism are indistinguishable from sincere expressions of extremism. Poe's Law implies that parody will often be mistaken for sincere belief, and sincere beliefs for parody."

[X_Digger]

93. Yes, I should have put a :sarcasm: tag. ;) n/t

[1939]

72. Just go down the list

Washington-Slave holder
Jefferson-Slave holder and rapist
Madison-Slave holder
Monroe-Slave holder
Jackson-Slave holder plus killer and ethnic cleanser of Native Americans
Harrison-Slave holder and killer of Native Americans
Tyler-Slave holder
Polk-Expanding number of slave states and invader of peace-loving Mexico
Lincoln-Wanting to ethnically cleanse the US of the slaves after freeing them
Johnson-Slave holder
Hayes-Ended reconstruction
McKinley-Rabid imperialist
Teddy Roosevelt-Proponent of Anglo-American white supremacy leading the world

We could call the legislation removing their names, statues, and pictures the "Sign Painters Relief Act"

[X_Digger]

49. Quick, whitewash history away! It's not like we have to remember that shit or anything. n/t

*edit for the inevitable jury alert: Whitewash refers to lime and water, typically used as paint. The perpetually offended will undoubtedly intentionally misconstrue this as something racial.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

52. Whitewash?

Now you've done it - DU's Society of the Perpetually Offended and Outraged are going to be...well...offended and outraged.

[romanic]

65. You in danger girl. -Whoppi

[Chitown Kev]

50. philoslayer, please make the title change to the Black Justice League

Last edited Thu Nov 19, 2015, 12:45 AM - Edit history (1)

to be accurate.

This post can (and will) come up on Google given the right search words and this attribution is not correct.

EDIT: Thank you for changing the headline.

[Todays_Illusion]

62. There is no formal organization named Black Justice League, it is very likely a

conservative political operation, like BLM, a Nixon style dirty ricks operation like the Nixon trick of hiring "violent" anti-war demonstrators to appear at his campaign speeches.

There is no organization address, no officers, no list of funding, no organization.

There are to purposes: Separate the African voters from the Democratic Parry and further tarnish the image of African Americans.

The dilemma of course it to point this out will draw calls of racism and or conspiracy.

My evidence is only as flimsy as the identity of the so called groups.

So far they only attack Democratic, and in a disruptive disreputable manner.

[Chitown Kev]

63. Do you have any receipts (evidence)

of your assertion that the Black Justice League is a "conservative political operation, like BLM, a Nixon style dirty ricks operation like the Nixon trick of hiring "violent" anti-war demonstrators to appear at his campaign speeches."

Oh, and what "African voters" are you referring to? That sounds like Jim Crow racism to me.

[Todays_Illusion]

64. The evidence is there is no formal organization for either name and that instant charge of racism is

why there is no challenge to them. They have only attacked Democratic, does that make any sense?

Can you show me a formal organization with an address, names, funding etc. That is another reason to have serious doubts and it is working.

[Chitown Kev]

66. Woodrow Wilson WAS a racist

and this has more to do with Princeton University than anything else...what, do organizations have to register with you or something?

[Todays_Illusion]

68. You are missing the point and this is meant to cause more harm to African Americans. Notice Wilson

was also Democratic. Are they attacking universities like Stanford who treats dead Republican Hoover like a sky god or other Republican racist and dead presidents like all of the ones I can name since Hoover; Harding, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan?

[Chitown Kev]

69. Why would black students at Stanford attack Hoover?

Hoover was never president of Stanford and in spite of the fact that Hoover ejected some black Republicans from the convention, he did give some lip service to the cause of civil rights...

Hoover was far from an evil man on any of the issues and even had a Native American as his Vice-President...

Also, Hoover was quite the humanitarian...I recalled this and Wikipedia fills in some of the details.

After the war, as a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, Hoover organized shipments of food for millions of starving people in Central Europe. He used a newly formed Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee, to carry out much of the logistical work in Europe.

Hoover provided aid to the defeated German nation after the war, as well as relief to famine-stricken Bolshevik-controlled areas of Russia in 1921, despite the opposition of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other Republicans. When asked if he was not thus helping Bolshevism, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!". The Russian famine of 1921–22 claimed 6 million people.[70] In July 1922, Soviet author Maxim Gorky wrote to Hoover:


Your help will enter history as a unique, gigantic achievement, worthy of the greatest glory, which will long remain in the memory of millions of Russians whom you have saved from death.[71]

At war's end, the New York Times named Hoover one of the "Ten Most Important Living Americans". Hoover confronted a world of political possibilities when he returned home in 1919. Democratic Party leaders saw him as a potential Presidential candidate, and President Wilson privately preferred Hoover as his successor. "There could not be a finer one," asserted Franklin D. Roosevelt, then a rising star from New York. Hoover briefly considered becoming a Democrat, but he believed that 1920 would be a Republican year. Also, Hoover confessed that he could not run for a party whose only member in his boyhood home had been the town drunk.

Hoover realized that he was in a unique position to collect information about the Great War and its aftermath. In 1919 he established the Hoover War Collection at Stanford University. He donated all the files of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the U.S. Food Administration, and the American Relief Administration, and pledged $50,000 as an endowment. Scholars were sent to Europe to collect pamphlets, society publications, government documents, newspapers, posters, proclamations, and other ephemeral materials related to the war and the revolutions that followed it. The collection was later renamed the Hoover War Library and is now known as the Hoover Institution.

Wish more Republicans were like Hoover, nowadays in that respect.

[JustAnotherGen]

71. Shhhh and don't tell them

Most blacks in South were against Wilson - and those who could vote (My grandfather and his father) were staunch Republicans for a reason. Like - so much so those two along with several male cousins, uncles etc etc went to a segregated speech in Alabama - the one where Harding suggested black Americans be given greater political presence even if we couldn't just up and end segregation.

I wish more American politicians were like Harding in general and agree with your assessment of Hoover.

I also almost updated your thread with this one but see you've found it. I'm not that far from Princeton. I see the dismissive attitude on this thread but I don't see a peep about the death threats to shoot black people at Keane in NJ (1 in 6 students are black there) Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

That must be freedom of speech and aok - but this is a "shadow organization thing" and Dartmouth blacks are "racial abusers".

This place is pure comedic gold. Pssst while they were creating theories - I received another promotion and raise yesterday. They'll call me a corporate whore but I'm one who is laughing all the way to the bank and smirking at their lack of awareness that black America has left them behind in the 1960s. These Dartmouth and Princeton kids - my nephew being a 2015 grad (Princeton) now working for a hedge fund on Wall Street - have a greater chance of obtaining wealth in this country. They should be a little nicer Doncha think?

[Chitown Kev]

75. I was about to bring up Harding's speech

Oh, the spectacle of an American president in 1921 giving a speech in the South where black people loudly cheered and crickets and grumbling from the segregationists...

[JustAnotherGen]

76. Then he turned right around

And supported an anti lynching bill!

Who'da thunk it after Wilson?

[ericson00]

67. we cannot erase our history!

I'm all BLM in the sense police forces and prosecutor offices need to stop recruiting people looking for a cushy pension after 20 years, body cams (which police forces vehemently oppose), but we cannot rename every building, erase all of America's heritage, especially given how times change in terms of social attitudes. What will be next? Tearing down the Washington Monument because he, like most wealthy white men of the 18th century, owned slaves? Or Lincoln because he used the word "negro," today considered to be derogatory?

This kind of extreme PCness could destroy the Dem party and the causes for the present and future people actually give a fuck about.

[Jake Stern]

77. Hmmmm

How about we obliterate references to
Abraham "If I could preserve the Union without freeing a single slave I would" Lincoln as well?

[TM99]

78. Why is it that extremists and fundamentalists of all creeds,

color, and national origin desire to destroy the artifacts of history with the twisted logic that it will somehow change the pass and make the future better?



I truly can not tolerate such foolish, rage fueled extremists.

[Throd]

79. The nation's flag should be redesigned while we're at it.

I mean, other than a few more stars, it is essentially the same flag that flew over a slave nation for 90 years.

History and its people are complex and often contradictory. How far are we going to go to expunge offensive figures and who will provide the standards?

[tishaLA]

81. I knew Princeton would go to hell when Valerie Smith left to become Pres of Swarthmore

but I didn't know it'd go to hell this quickly.

Prof Smith is a mentor and friend...and had been the Dean of the College at Princeton....and Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton. This is Prof Smith:



I always thought it very clever of Princeton administration to make an African American feminist the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature. Kinda subversive, even.

[TipTok]

85. The Black Justice League...

Google Images rarely disappoints...