Wilson High grad, former NFL player Xavier Cooper leading charge for school name change
Wilson High School 2010 graduate Xavier Cooper is among those leading the charge in the process to change the name of Wilson High School in Tacoma.
Cooper, a defensive lineman who played college football at Washington State before a three-year stint in the NFL, with the Browns, 49ers and Jets, reached out to Wilson principal Bernadette Ray — currently the only Black Tacoma high school principal — telling her he wanted his Cleveland jersey removed from the school’s “Hall of Fame” display case near the gym after researching Woodrow Wilson’s history.
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921, and known for leading the country through World War I. He was also a segregationist who wrote a history textbook praising the Confederacy and was an advocate of the Ku Klux Klan.
When Cooper reached out to Ray, she wanted to take a different approach rather than having his jersey removed from the school. Instead, she gave Cooper a voice in the name-change process.
“(Wilson) embodied everything the KKK stood for — he wanted segregation at the federal level,” Cooper said. “He was a racist. If I’m a leader in the Tacoma community, if I would’ve known these things as an athlete at Wilson, I don’t know if I would’ve wanted to play a sport and represent that name if I would’ve known the things I know now. I wanted to step up for the youth. That’s my passion.”
With the Black Lives Matter movement gaining traction in 2020 in the wake of nationwide protests over police brutality, Cooper felt it was the right time.
“We have a chance to change the future moving forward,” Cooper said. “We’re seeing organizations saying they’re pro-Black Lives Matter, but what’s the long-term impact? Giving Wilson something diversified, giving Wilson a new image is that long impact for the youth. … We want to educate people, and, hopefully, the young kids, the minorities and youth will feel welcome in an inclusive environment.”
Cooper, like many others, wasn’t aware of Wilson’s racist background until recently. During a roundtable discussion with local Black high school student-athletes hosted by The News Tribune in June, a topic that was brought up on several occasions was the failing of the American education system to broach difficult topics regarding race and the uglier side of American history.
Wilson’s accomplishments leading the country through World War I and his role as the primary architect of the League of Nations are well documented, but his racist views are more or less glossed over in history lessons in schools.
“I thought about all the kids and the generations of people that have gone through (Wilson High School) and wondered if they knew this,” Cooper said. “We’re not going to stand behind a guy who was a racist. We’re trying to move in the opposite direction.
“I think for our education leaders, we have to do a better job educating our students on who the current leaders are and who the past leaders were. … There is another side of American history that we don’t talk about. It’s institutional racism — we only know one side of history.”
Cooper said throughout his football career, he’s grown the most when he’s been outside of his comfort zone. It’s an approach he’d like to see schools take — embracing having those uncomfortable conversations when it comes to racial issues.
“The schools need to have these uncomfortable conversations,” Cooper said. “If they’re not educated, they need to get educated on them. They need to talk about racism. If we’re going to move forward as a country, we’re going to have to get comfortable with those conversations. When you get uncomfortable, you grow. That’s been my experience.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 12:32 PM.
