ABSTRACT
President Wick read the resolution from the student senate again. “Be it resolved: that the university remove from campus the historical marker commemorating nineteenthcentury newspaper editor Elizabeth Swisshelm because of her published racist statements against Native Americans. A university committed to diversity should not condone racism in any form.” The resolution was the culmination of two years of student protest. The students were correct. Elizabeth Swisshelm was a racist. She published her racist views of American Indians in her newspaper. However, she also was an abolitionist in a community divided about slavery before the Civil War. The historical marker commemorates her abolitionist paper and her resistance to efforts to silence her. Pro-slavery supporters broke into her print shop and dumped her printing press into the river. The historical marker is on the site of her printing shop. If the president orders the removal of the marker, the university will no longer honor a racist. However, removing the marker would erase public recognition of her work against slavery.
