3 Colleges Wrestle With Iconic Leaders’ Racial Legacies

Nassau Hall was closing for the night, but the students stayed. Around 40 of them spent Wednesday night in the building, sitting in the office of Christopher L. Eisgruber, Princeton University’s president. Outside, more students camped in tents.

Among other things, the protesters wanted Woodrow Wilson’s name removed from buildings on the campus. Wilson served as Princeton’s president from 1902 to 1910 — just two years before he was elected president of the United States — and the protesters said he left a racist legacy. But today his name and image are ubiquitous on the campus.

“He did his part for white supremacy,” said Nell I. Painter, a professor emerita of American history at Princeton. “There’s no question about that. But he was also president of the United States and president of Princeton.”

At colleges with long histories, famous figures like Wilson are ingrained in campus culture. Their stories are part of institutional memory, passed on through marketing materials and campus tour guides, and revered by generations of alumni. When more than one college claims a famed leader, rivalries develop.

But when the historical figures’ beliefs and policies clash with modern understandings of civil rights, students may question those associations. Now, amid nationwide protests over racial inequality, student protesters are demanding that their colleges cut ties with iconic leaders.

Here is how the issues are playing out on three campuses.

Protests Over ‘Lord Jeff’ at Amherst

At Amherst College, someone used to wear a Lord Jeffery Amherst costume — an oversize head, a tricornered hat — and run up and down the sidelines at football games.

Lord Jeffery Amherst, for whom the Massachusetts college and its town are named, is known colloquially as Lord Jeff. He became the college’s unofficial mascot around 1906, when a student in the Glee Club wrote a song about him.

But earlier this month, students staged a sit-in at the library and presented the college’s president with a list of demands. Among them: that the president, Carolyn A. (Biddy) Martin, release a statement condemning Lord Jeff, and that she encourage the Amherst community to stop using his name and image.

Lord Jeffery Amherst was an 18th-century British military commander who led efforts to quell Native Americans during colonial times. Historians believe he planned to give them blankets that were contaminated with smallpox.

Several days later, Amherst faculty members took an unofficial vote. They decided unanimously to drop the mascot.

“He planned to commit genocide,” said Francis G. Couvares, a professor of history and American studies at Amherst. “There’s been a lot of feeling over the last few years that he’s got to go.”

Mr. Couvares has been pushing for Lord Jeff’s removal for some time. A few years ago, a committee on athletics decided that Lord Jeff was no longer an appropriate representation of the college.

After that, the issue continued to be debated quietly. At a reunion event, a group of older alumni argued with Mr. Couvares. But most students and faculty members backed the change, he said.

The mascot is unofficial — students can still use the name or sing the song — but Mr. Couvares thinks mostly older alumni will resist the change. For them, the mascot was an integral part of campus culture. Men’s sports teams would call themselves the Lord Jeffs, while the women’s teams called themselves the Lady Jeffs.

“There used to be the singing of the song at alumni events — and that will probably still go on amongst those who were here decades ago,” Mr. Couvares said. “But the Glee Club’s not going to sing it anymore, I would guess.”

Jefferson’s Legacy at William & Mary

Back in 2012, on the 250th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s graduation from the College of William & Mary, hundreds of students gathered around the college’s Jefferson statue to celebrate.

The students were told that the statues could be awakened on important anniversaries by “honoring their legacies.” An actor dressed as Jefferson soon appeared on the scene.

This month protesters covered the statue of Jefferson with sticky notes. Each note bore a message, including “slave owner,” “racist,” and “he knew it was wrong.”

Jefferson is known as the founder of the University of Virginia, but he is also a big part of William & Mary’s institutional identity. In addition to the statue, there’s also Jefferson Hall, the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award, and the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy.

The sticky notes echoed a similar protest at the University of Missouri at Columbia in early October. So far, nobody at William & Mary has taken credit for the protest or issued any formal demands to remove the Jefferson statue.

“I don’t think we need to hide or remove him from the history,” said a William & Mary history professor, Jody L. Allen. “I think we need to tell his full story.”

Ms. Allen is co-chair and managing director of the Lemon Project, which is dedicated to exploring William & Mary’s role in slavery and racial discrimination. Part of the project’s goal is to provide a more-complete history of the college, and to present a more-accurate picture of figures like Jefferson.

Sometimes Ms. Allen asks students: If William & Mary had told you more about its historical figures, would it have affected your decision to enroll?

“Most of them have said that it would have actually made it an easier decision,” she said. “They would be happy to be somewhere that was telling the whole story.”

‘Old Nassau’ at Princeton

One of Princeton’s six residential colleges is named for Wilson, as is the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. A campus dining hall features a mural of Wilson, which protesters also want removed.

“We demand the university administration publicly acknowledge the racist legacy of Woodrow Wilson and how he impacted campus policy and culture,” the protesters wrote in a letter to Princeton officials.

Mr. Eisgruber spoke with the protesters on Wednesday. He told them that the university should talk openly about Wilson’s legacy, but that it shouldn’t remove his name from campus buildings.

But for the protesters, promoting Wilson’s legacy seems dishonest. The former president segregated parts of the federal work force, and he is known for his racist views. Walking past buildings bearing his name, some students say they feel marginalized.

Yet he’s an undeniably large part of the university’s past. In a famous 1896 speech, on Princeton’s sesquicentennial, he provided the university with a motto that helped carry it from a small liberal-arts college to an internationally renowned research university: “Princeton in the nation’s service.” Taking his name off buildings — refusing to acknowledge his role in history — is just another form of erasure, opponents argue.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to strip the name from the Woodrow Wilson School,” Ms. Painter said. “I would say, Make public the facts about Woodrow Wilson’s life and career, and let him damn himself.”

By Thursday night, 32 hours after students had begun their sit-in at the president’s office, administrators signed an agreement. They did not commit to removing Wilson’s name from Princeton, but said that they would “initiate conversations concerning the present legacy of Woodrow Wilson on this campus.”