A timely reassessment

More than a century after he dominated American politics, Woodrow Wilson still fascinates. The Wilson that emerges is a man superbly unsuited to the moment when he ascended to the presidency in 1912.

The first southern Democrat to occupy the White House since the Civil War era brought with him to Washington like-minded men who quickly set to work segregating the federal government. Wilson’s own sympathy for Jim Crow and states’ rights animated his years-long hostility to the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Women demonstrating for voting rights found themselves demonized.

When, in the twilight of his second term, two-thirds of Congress stood on the threshold of passing the Anthony Amendment, Wilson abruptly switched his position.

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