Woodrow Wilson’s childhood home gets name change over racist legacy

Local preservationists have renamed the childhood home of Woodrow Wilson to better reflect the former president’s upbringing in the Reconstruction-era South just after the Civil War, part of a broader reconsidering of his and the country’s legacy of racism.

The home in Columbia, South Carolina, was formerly called the Woodrow Wilson Family Home, but has been renamed The Museum of Reconstruction Era at the Woodrow Wilson Home, according to the Post and Courier.

“This shift in title does not erase the site’s history,” Historic Columbia member Dawn Mills-Campbell told the local city council earlier this year, according to the Post. “It gives Historic Columbia and Richland County a more forward-facing role in addressing the ongoing dialogue around the importance of the Reconstruction era to current events.”