Tuesday, June 28, 2022

CITIZENS & SCHOLARS--renaming, rewriting history, shaming us who were once or twice Woodrow Wilson Fellows

 


In EVERY CLOAK ROLLED IN BLOOD the 85 year old narrator turns away from the destruction of the statue of a Confederate hero. He is more liberal than I am because he knows more injustices than I do, but he knows that what's in the minds of those destroying the statue is not altogether admirable. It is so hard to know history and so easy to lose it. In 1960 I got an MA at Northwestern with a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship then (1963) got a PhD there with one of the first Woodrow Wilson National Dissertation Fellowships. Maybe it was the first. I just happened to be qualified--MA, German and French, courses, and that month (May 1962) the prelims. I had planned to study for them all the next year but Walker, now died, wanted me to come out to Adlai country and quiz him all weekend in preparation. I got there Friday and on Saturday I asked Hayford if I could take the prelims on Monday and Tuesday. He said yes and got Samuels to agree, angry that I had not signed up on time. So I was able to apply but I told the chairman I had to have $4,000, having lived on half that too long. He said they won't agree. He called Princeton and came back with their best offer, $3,990. I caved. So that summer I worked in all the great New York, Pittsfield, and Boston-Cambridge Melville collections. I made great use of the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship.-----

 

 I have known for a long time that Wilson's ideas about blacks were far from enlightened, but the people at Princeton who passed out the fellowships were using his name for good purposes.

 

Then came WOKENESS. I am no longer a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. I am a Citizens & Scholars Fellow. In a flyer that just came, a Fellow from 1964 is profiled. History has to be rewritten: He "has supported Citizens & Scholars for 39 years." Well, when did the WOKERs change the name? Last week? Last year? Am I evil in feeling humiliated and embarrassed by being a Citizens & Scholars Fellow? I do feel humiliated and shamed.

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