Change name of new middle school because President Wilson was racist, some argue

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — City school leaders gave no thought to changing the school name as they razed Woodrow Wilson High School and began construction of Woodrow Wilson Middle School on the same site at Gibson Street and Indianola Avenue in Youngstown.

After all, the school named for the 28th president had existed since 1928, first as a junior high and then as a high school, resulting in a long history and tradition for the school, and the Wilson alumni have proven to be a very loyal group.

Wilson High School closed in 2007 and was torn down as part of a $190 million school rebuilding program. Part of that plan called for it to be replaced by a middle school and keeping the name just seemed to be the natural course, said Lock P. Beachum Sr., vice president and long-time school board member. There was never any suggestion or discussion about changing it, he said.

But such a suggestion has surfaced now.

Gregory Warren of Monticello Boulevard addressed the board recently, saying that Wilson was a confirmed racist and that the district might find a better hero after whom the new school, which will open next fall, should be named.

Warren wasn’t speaking only for himself. He represented the Community High Commission On Closing the Academic Standards Achievement Gap for Afrikan Students in the Youngstown City Schools, a grass roots organization that wants to be an equal partner in the education of its children. The commission has a number of groups in its membership, including the Parent-Student Union, the Afrikan Village of Youngstown and the Muhammad Study Group.

Woodrow Wilson was a very influential and knowledgeable man who received the Nobel Peace Prize, but he was a confirmed racist who, as president of Princeton University, fought against the admission of black students, and, as president of the United States, instituted segregation in the federal government, Warren told the board.

The school district (which has a 69 percent black student enrollment) should pick more appropriate heroes, Warren said, suggesting that the name for the new school was selected without any community input.

Read the full story and an accompanying related story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.