Camden Schools removes Woodrow Wilson's name from HS building, will be called Eastside High

CAMDEN - "Woodrow Wilson Senior High School" may remain etched in the stone of the 92-year-old Camden City school building. 

But for the students inside the building every day, the former U.S. President's views of race will no longer loom over them or the surrounding community. 

Starting in the 2022-2023 school year, Wilson's name will be removed. 

The Class of 2023 will be the first to have "Eastside High" scribed on their diplomas.

"The name change of our Woodrow Wilson High School shows that we heard the voices of our students and of our community," Superintendent Katrina McCombs said in statement.

After more than a year and a half of discussing a namesake that hasn't represented a community for some time, the Camden City school board Tuesday voted to strip Wilson's name from the school. 

Young people were at the heart process, McCombs said. 

In 2020-2021, about 665 students were enrolled at the high school, according to National Center for Education Statistics' enrollment data. Only 6 of those students are white.

In June 2020, McCombs — a Camden City native and Camden High graduate — announced the district would assemble a committee of students, alumni and community members to choose a new name for the high school. 

The renaming committee met in January to narrow down it's options to three names: Eastside High, Camden High East and East Camden High. Several hundred students voted on their high school's new name, choosing Eastside, according to district spokeswoman Valerie Merritt.

Earlier:Name change planned for Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden

Tuesday, the school board certified the students' pick, and authorized the official name change. Merritt expects school district fanfare when the change goes into effect this fall.

"Our young people are excited and thrilled that their voices were heard and that they had a say in the process," Merritt said Wednesday. 

The Woodrow Wilson School opened as a junior high school in 1930, then converted to a high school in 1933, according to the school district. 

At the time, choosing Wilson as a namesake may have made sense to district leadership. Wilson had just lead the United States through World War I; created the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve; and was awarded the Nobel Prize for engineering the League of Nations. 

Wilson had also served as New Jersey's governor from 1911 to 1913, before winning the U.S. Presidential Election in 1912 and serving two terms. 

There's a shadow cast over his resume, though — what McCombs has called out as clear "racist views."

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Wilson perpetuated federal workplace segregation during his presidency, from segregating restrooms and installing screens between Black and white workers, to appointing just nine African Americans to federal positions. 

While he once served as Princeton University's president, the institution has also scrubbed his name from buildings, including its School of Public and International Affairs. It's residential college, which bore WIlson's name for 50 years, will be renamed for prominent Black Alumna Mellody Hobson, the chief executive of the first Black-owned investment firm. 

Monmouth University announced during its 2020 Juneteenth celebration that it would remove Wilson's name from a campus building. 

"The renaming of WWHS has clearly shown us all to never give up and to continue to push forward until change happens," McCombs said.

Carly Q. Romalino is a Gloucester County native who's covered South Jersey since 2008. She's a Rowan University graduate and a six-time New Jersey Press Association award winner. 

Romalino is based at the Courier Post and covers South Jersey schools and education issues for the Courier Post, Daily Journal and Burlington County Times.

She hosts NJ Press Pass, a live social media-based interview show diving into what matters to South Jersey residents. 

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