The D.C. Council approved unanimously Tuesday a resolution to support the renaming of Woodrow Wilson High School, bringing new scrutiny to the segregationist legacy of the 28th U.S. president and lending firepower to efforts to rename other buildings that bear the names of segregationists and racists.
“Soon after his inauguration, President Wilson’s administration oversaw the demotion and firing of Black workers, isolating them in “Negro corners,” forcing them to use “colored toilets” and erecting “Whites-only” signs in federal buildings,” read Chairman Phil Mendelson on Tuesday. “President Wilson’s racism had a disproportionate impact on our city. Accordingly, it is not appropriate to have one of our high schools named after this public figure, despite other aspects of his record.”
The vote came weeks after council Mendelson agreed to edit a previous report he had written on Wilson that began with glowing language, calling him a “great president” and a “progressive Democrat,” a characterization that drew criticism from his colleagues.
DCPS communication and engagement officer Shanita Burney said during a hearing in September that efforts are underway to rename the school. The school system is fielding suggestions for a replacement via an online form until Oct. 30.
The resolution was first introduced in July. Efforts to rename the school gained steam over the summer, and a petition urging D.C. Public Schools to change the name gained thousands of signatures. More than 22,000 people have signed as of Wednesday.
Mayor Muriel Bowser also voiced her support for the change in June, with some hesitation.
“It should be changed, and I say that reluctantly only for one reason, and that’s because we have been through this discussion with high schools and how people feel about their alma mater and attaching a lot of significance to their alma mater,” she said at a press conference in June. “We have come in this time to an important moment where people are shedding that attachment.”
She added, “We know the legacy of President Wilson. I think that it has been appropriately disavowed. It’s particularly impactful here in the District, the seat of the federal government. There may be a larger discussion to have, and I think it is appropriate to do it in an orderly way and to do it together.”
The school was also one of 21 public and charter schools identified for renaming by a D.C. working group commissioned by Bowser after it studied the history of racism and oppression behind the namesakes.
Wilson High was founded in 1935 and is the city’s largest high school. Black students make up more than 30% of the school’s nearly 1,800 students. Wilson social studies teacher Michele Bollinger told DCist/WAMU in June that discussions to change its name go back at least two decades.
WAMU reporter Daniella Cheslow contributed to this story.
