Richard Snedeker’s letter is a bit simplistic; in the ’50s my parents owned our home in a racially integrated, middle-class neighborhood — in a pretty racist town. So the wide-swath approach doesn’t deal with reality, just as in the case of Wilson.
The reality of President Wilson’s situation is that when he arrived in D.C., he came into an already-integrated government — jobs, dining rooms, and bathrooms were integrated and had been for several years. In his first years, he re-segregated all three. That is not a man of his time; that is a racist.
Being a racist doesn’t diminish his other accomplishments, just as we can’t allow his other accomplishments to diminish our seeing his racism. Admitting his moral character was flawed is seeing the reality. I believe being honest about our past together in this country is what will move us forward.