The Indiana University Board of Trustees made a smart and reasonable decision in removing the name of Ora L. Wildermuth from the intramural center on the Bloomington campus.
The Wildermuth name has been a source of controversy for about a decade since some letters he wrote in the 1940s questioning racial integration were made public. One of the letters, written in 1948 to former IU President Herman B Wells, stated, “The average of the (black) race as to intelligence, economic status and industry is so far below the white average that it seems to me futile to build up hope for a great future.”
It was particularly sensitive that his name was on the very building where Bill Garrett became the first African-American to play basketball in the Big Ten Conference.
Trustee Pat Shoulders, the only trustee who voted against the name removal last week, called the action “presentism” while noting that Wildermuth’s view was not that unusual for Indiana at that time. He said after the public meeting: “We kid ourselves if we believe Indiana University was an oasis of enlightened civil rights in the 1940s.”
That’s a good point, but not the point of making this change. Just because Wildermuth may have been in tune with the abhorrent views of his times doesn’t mean the university should allow his name to remain on a building 70 years later.
The removal of his name doesn’t need to include erasing references to Ora L. Wildermuth from the history of IU, where he served as a member of the board of trustees for 27 years. But taking his name off the building is a clear message that his written ideas about race do not conform with the basic views of human rights for which the university must and does stand.
Just because his name was once deemed worthy of being placed on a building does not mean it still does. On the contrary. His viewpoints on race must disqualify him for such an honor.
Simply put, this is not so much “presentism” as it is simply the right thing to do to show the university abides by certain unwavering principles about the rights of people.
