Patricia O’Toole, author of The Moralist, a new biography of Woodrow Wilson, reveals a complicated portrait of America’s 28th president. O’Toole describes Wilson as a complex man who was comfortable with segregation, firmly set on building international alliances and a skilled orator whose deteriorating health resulted in his wife running the country behind the scenes in the final years of his presidency.

O’Toole notes that Wilson had a history of racism. He was comfortable with upholding segregation as a Southern man trying to get his economic reform plan passed. Wilson believed segregation was they key to “harmony between the races,” O’Toole tells uPolitics. He also held prejudices against the Japanese and facilitated several military interventions in Mexico and the Caribbean. O’Toole describes Wilson’s racism as “a very dark mark on his record.” In the past few years, Princeton students have expressed their displeasure over Wilson, who was a Princeton professor and president, having his name plastered all over the campus.

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