September 27, 2012

To: Mr. James E. Bridgeford, Dr. Elizabeth Daniels, Rev. Joseph A. Fleming, Mr. James M. Hewitt, IV, Mr. Edward P. "Ned" McCabe, Mr. B. Keith Nance, Sr., Mr. Claude C. Parent , Dr. Mark M. Whitaker, Mrs. Costella Williams, Dr. David C. Stuckwisch, Mr. Timothy E. Johnson, Mayor Kenneth I. Wright, Vice Mayor Charles B. Whitehurst, Sr., Councilman William E. Moody, Jr., Councilwoman Marlene W. Randall, Councilman Stephen E. Heretick, Councilman Paige D. Cherry, Councilman Dr. Curtis E. Edmonds, Sr.

SOMETHING IS WRONG

In respect to the African-American population in one of your Portsmouth schools, something is terribly wrong.

The following resolution addresses the issue:

“Whereas the Woodrow Wilson High School of Portsmouth, Virginia has a majority student population of Descendants of Chattel Slaves (African Americans or Black Americans)1;

“Whereas President Woodrow Wilson after whom the High School was named was not an advocate for civil rights as popularly assumed but practiced racial segregation in the federal government after his inauguration in 1913:

“‘Wilson's historical reputation is that of a far-sighted progressive. That role has been assigned to him by historians based on his battle for the League of Nations, and the opposition he faced from isolationist Republicans…Domestically, however, Wilson was a racist retrograde, one who attempted to engineer the diminution of both justice and democracy for American blacks—who were enjoying little of either to begin with....

“‘Upon taking power in Washington, Wilson and the many other Southerners he brought into his cabinet were disturbed at the way the federal government went about its own business. One legacy of post-Civil War Republican ascendancy was that Washington's large black populace had access to federal jobs, and worked with whites in largely integrated circumstances. Wilson's cabinet put an end to that, bringing Jim Crow to Washington.

“‘Wilson allowed various officials to segregate the toilets, cafeterias, and work areas of their departments. One justification involved health: White government workers had to be protected from contagious diseases, especially venereal diseases, that racists imagined were being spread by blacks. In extreme cases, federal officials built separate structures to house black workers. Most black diplomats were replaced by whites; numerous black federal officials in the South were removed from their posts; the local Washington police force and fire department stopped hiring blacks. Wilson's own view, as he expressed it to intimates, was that federal segregation was an act of kindness.'2;

1 http://www.schooldigger.com/go/VA/schools/0300001255/school.aspx#tbStudents2 http://reason.com/blog/2009/11/30/woodrow-wilsons-legacy

“Whereas the website of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library reports:

“‘Wilson permitted segregation in federal offices soon after becoming president, treating it, he said, not as an instrument of humiliation, but as a means to ease racial tensions.  W.E.B. Dubois and likeminded thinkers disagreed heartily with Wilson's choice, petitioning repeatedly for the suspension of the practice. Wilson refused.’3;  

“Whereas Black educator Booker T. Washington said of his visit to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1913, just a few months after Wilson’s inauguration: ‘I have never seen the colored people so discouraged and bitter as they are at the present time.’4;

“Whereas the April 1959 issue of the Journal of Negro History stated:

“‘When Woodrow Wilson assumed the presidency in 1913 many Negroes believed that he would champion their cause for advancement. An unprecedented number of Negroes had cast their vote for Wilson, ridicule from others of their race for so departing from the ranks of the Republican Party. This deviation from the traditional line of Negro support was nurtured by discontent with the Republican and Progressive candidates, Taft and (Theodore) Roosevelt, and their platforms. It was spurred by the stirring assurances of wholehearted support to the Negro race by Woodrow Wilson.

“‘Yet is was in Woodrow Wilson’s administration that the most bitter blow to Negro hopes of advancement fell.”5;

”Whereas when he was president of Princeton University, Wilson barred blacks from admission.6;

“Whereas NAACP officer W.E.B. DuBois, Editor of the NAACP publication The Crisis wrote to President Wilson in September 1913:

“‘Sir, you have now been President of the United States for six months and what is the result? It is no exaggeration to say that every enemy of the Negro race is greatly encouraged; that every man who dreams of making the Negro race a group of menials and pariahs is alert and hopeful. Vardaman, Tillman, Hoke Smith, Cole Blease, and Burleson are evidently assuming that their theory of the place and destiny of the Negro race is the theory of your administration, They and others are assuming this because not a single act and not a single word of yours since election has given anyone reason to infer that that you have the slightest interest in the colored people or desire to alleviate their intolerable position… To this negative appearance of indifference has been added positive action on the part of your advisers, with or without your knowledge, which constitutes the gravest attack on the liberties of our people since emancipation, Public segregation of civil servants in government employ, necessarily involving personal insult and 3 http://www.woodrowwilson.org/1916-election/131-the-peoples-experience-african-americans4 http://www.archive.org/stream/woodrowwilsonand007665mbp/woodrowwilsonand007665mbp_djvu.txt5 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2716036?uid=3739560&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=211012421195976 http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/brown/1912.html

humiliation, has for the first time in history been made the policy of the United States government.

“In the Treasury and Post Office Departments colored clerks have been herded to themselves as though they were not human beings. We are told that one colored clerk who could not actually be segregated on account of the nature of his work has consequently had a cage built around him to separate him from his white companions of many years. Mr. Wilson, do you know these things? Are you responsible for them? Did you advise them? Do you not know that no other group of American citizens has ever been treated in this way and that no President of the United States ever dared to propose such treatment? Here is a plain, flat, disgraceful spitting in the face of people whose darkened countenances are already dark with the slime of insult. Do you consent to this, President Wilson? Do you believe in it? Have you been able to persuade yourself that national insult is best for a people struggling into self-respect?’7;

“Whereas a precedent has already been set in the city of San Francisco, California in 2011, at the urging of Rev. Amos Brown, local chapter president of the NAACP, in changing the name of a educational institution in the city from one of a white supremacist, Governor Peter Burnett of California, to Leola M. Havard, the city’s first African-American school principal8;

“Whereas a precedent has already been set in the city of Nashville, Tennessee in 2010, that the Arthur Dickson Wharton Elementary School, named after a Confederate naval hero, was changed to the Robert Museum Churchwell Elementary School, named after the first African-American journalist hired by a major southern newspaper9;

“Whereas a precedent has already been set in the city of Austin, Texas at the University of Texas where university regents voted July 15, 2010 to remove the name of a former professor and Ku Klux Klan organizer, William Stewart Simkins, from a campus dormitory10;

“Whereas a precedent has already been set in Orleans Parish, Louisiana in October 1997 where its school board voted on a policy that prohibits school names honoring ‘former slave owners or others who did not respect equal opportunity for all’11;

“Whereas it has been thoroughly documented historically that President Woodrow Wilson was not a white U.S. president who respected equal opportunity for all, but rather actively practiced racial discrimination;

“Whereas we ask the question how can we logically expect African-American students to honor, to respect, and to be proud of a white U.S. president who did not respect equal opportunity for all and actively and openly practiced racial discrimination against African Americans?;

7 http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=11158 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/19/peter-burnett-school_n_864489.html9 http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/nashville-school-may-erase-confederate-hero-s-name-add-black-journalist, http://www.mnps.org/Page53052.aspx10 http://blogs.clarionledger.com/jmitchell/2010/07/28/university-of-texas-removes-name-of-klansman-from-building/, http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/dorm-name-recalls-offensive-kkk-historyz11 http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/articles/news/nytimes.html

“Therefore, let it be resolved that the name of the Woodrow Wilson High School of Portsmouth, Virginia be immediately changed to a name that honors the memory of the civil rights struggle and honors the Descendants of the Chattel Slaves.”

Consider this quote from the U.S. history book Land of Promise:

“Woodrow Wilson's administration was openly hostile to black people. Wilson was an outspoken white supremacist who believed that black people were inferior. During his campaign for the presidency, Wilson promised to press for civil rights. But once in office he forgot his promises. Instead, Wilson ordered that white and black workers in federal government jobs be segregated from one another. This was the first time such segregation had existed since Reconstruction! When black federal employees in Southern cities protested the order, Wilson had the protesters fired. In November, 1914, a black delegation asked the President to reverse his policies. Wilson was rude and hostile and refused their demands.” (http://www.utwatch.org/funfacts/woodrowwilson.html)

Therefore can or should Woodrow Wilson be a hero to black Americans, especially black students?

What sense would it make to have a school in a Jewish community named the Adolph Hitler Jewish Day School, the Joseph Goebbels Jewish Day School, or even the Heinrich Himmler Jewish Day School?

Therefore, does it make sense for a school with a majority African-American population to be named after a white anti-integregationist and white supremacist? As there are precedents for similar name changes among different educational institutions, I ask that you please change the name of Woodrow Wilson High School to a name more appropriate to the history of the civil rights struggle of the Chattel Slaves and the Descendants of Chattel Slaves.

THANK YOU

Robert Oliverrobertcst1@gmail.com