COMPLICATED LEGACY: The Princeton University Board of Trustees has decided not to remove the statue of founding father and former University President John Witherspoon from its prominent place in Firestone Plaza, despite Witherspoon’s ownership of slaves and opposition to abolition. (Photo by Princeton University, Denise Applewhite)

By Donald Gilpin

In 2022 more than 300 petitioners called for removal of the large statue of John Witherspoon that stands atop a pedestal in front of East Pyne Hall and towers over Princeton University’s Firestone Plaza, but after more than two years of ensuing debate and deliberations on campus, the University’s Board of Trustees has decided that the statue will remain.

Witherspoon, who made many significant contributions to Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey) as its sixth president (1768-1794) and to the country as a founding father and signatory of the Declaration of Independence, also owned slaves and spoke out against the abolition of slavery.

“We do not believe that questions about John Witherspoon’s legacy provide sufficient ground for removal or relocation of the statue,” the trustees wrote in an October 2 statement.

The trustees response followed a deliberation process that began in November 2022 when the University administration announced that the Committee on Naming of the Council of the Princeton University Community was considering the proposal of the petitioners to remove the statue.

The discussion of Witherspoon’s legacy and its implications for Princeton University continues, as the debate over other historical figures goes on at Princeton, in national media, and throughout the U.S.

The Naming Committee’s report, issued in March 2024, culminated a two-year process that included many listening sessions with a range of different individuals and opinions, considerable input from the University community, and two half-day conferences featuring panels of experts from inside and outside the University.

The committee recommended that the University consider relocating the statue, stating that “John Witherspoon is worthy of recognition, but not canonization.” The committee also recommended that “the glorification of Witherspoon” should be reduced by presenting to viewers of the statue a “more complex and accurate history” than the laudatory account currently displayed on the statue’s base.

The trustees’ statement cited principles it has established to guide decisions about renaming and changing campus iconography, noting the applicability of the principles’ “presumption against altering University honorifics on the basis of concerns about a historical individual’s legacy.”

They went on to suggest a number of additional questions that “deserve attention and resolution,” including the possibility that the statue would not “remain in its current state or location.” The trustees referred those questions to the Campus Art Steering Committee.

“During this process,” the trustees wrote, “questions have been raised about contextualization, aesthetics, and possible educational uses of the statue, its scale, its ‘fit … within the University’s existing memorial landscape,’ and how best to provide information about the statue, its history, and its meaning.”

It’s not surprising that deliberations over John Witherspoon, his statue, and his complicated legacy should be lengthy and ongoing. The Firestone Plaza statue is only one of many recognitions of Witherspoon on campus and beyond.

The report of the Committee on Naming notes that there is Witherspoon Hall on Witherspoon Drive, Witherspoon’s Cafe in the Frist Campus Center, a portrait of Witherspoon in the Faculty Room of Nassau Hall, a medallion bearing Witherspoon’s likeness displayed in Firestone Library, a wall sculpture of Witherspoon outside the provost’s office in Nassau Hall, a full-length figure of Witherspoon represented in stained glass in the University Chapel, and a statue of Witherspoon built into a niche of the facade in the tower of East Pyne Hall.

In town, though the Princeton Middle School changed its name from John Witherspoon School in 2021, Witherspoon Street remains a major artery through the center of Princeton, and Witherspoon-Jackson remains a prominent, historic Princeton neighborhood.

The University’s debate over the Witherspoon statue, which was installed in 2001, recalls a similar controversy, though quite different in its own complicated details, over Woodrow Wilson, another iconic Princeton University figure. After about five years of deliberations and dispute, the University decided in 2020 to remove Wilson’s name from its School of Public and International Affairs and from a residence college on campus.