Woodrow Wilson: America’s worst president for free speech

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Figures of Speech<br>Woodrow Wilson: America’s worst president for free speech

Angel Eduardo<br>Jun 10, 2026

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This year, the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, FIRE is proud to present the limited series “Figures of Speech,” looking at the heroes and villains of free speech in American history. We began with Joseph McCarthy, the senator who scared America silent. Then we looked at Thomas Paine, American history’s winter soldier. Now we turn to Woodrow Wilson, our worst president when it comes to free speech.

On Feb. 9, 1919 — the eve of an ill-fated vote on the 19th Amendment — the National Woman’s Party burned President Woodrow Wilson in effigy.

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Suffragettes had been protesting outside the White House for years at this point, and were furious with Wilson’s disinterest in supporting their cause. After years of pressure, Wilson had finally paid lip service in support of the cause, but this commitment had come without action. “We burn not the effigy of the President of a free people, but the leader of an autocratic party organization,” suffragist Sue White declared. This sentiment was echoed by protest signs and banners that read “The President is responsible for the betrayal of American women,” and “He preaches democracy abroad and thwarts democracy here.”<br>These criticisms were right.

Wilson had become quite successful at denying people their right to be heard. By 1919, he had secured his reputation as the worst president for free speech in American history. Thousands of arrests, prosecutions, convictions, and even deportations for speech occurred under his stewardship and instruction. He had even successfully established the first modern propaganda institution in American history, which also controlled and stifled the dissemination of any speech counter to his preferred narratives.<br>Wilson’s iron grip on American speech was short-lived, but devastating at a scale not seen before or arguably since.<br>Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, on Dec. 28, 1856, and grew up in the midst of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. He was one of only two presidents, the other being John Tyler, to have been citizens of the Confederate States of America. It was an upbringing that was consistent with the racist policies and sentiments Wilson would carry with him into the White House. He later re-segregated the federal government and promoted Ku Klux Klan propaganda, such as by showing the film The Birth of a Nation at the White House and lavishly praising it.<br>Wilson would study history, political philosophy, and German before earning his PhD in history and political science. Soon after, he became president of Princeton University, where he became a prominent advocate for progressive education. He later served as governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, wherein he engaged in various progressive actions including antitrust laws and workers compensation legislation, as well as reforms regulating child labor and increasing standards for factory working conditions. This won him widespread recognition as a leader in the Progressive movement and made him a prominent contender for the presidency, which he won in 1912.

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This year, the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, FIRE is proud to present the limited series “Figures of Speech,” looking at the heroes and villains of free speech in American history. We began with Joseph McCarthy, the senator who<br>Read full story

When World War I broke out in 1914, Wilson was praised for maintaining neutrality and keeping America out of the conflict, as well as for attempting to broker peace between the warring powers. His position was so popular, in fact, that it was used extensively during his reelection campaign, which used the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War.”<br>This, however, wouldn’t last — nor would his overall approval by the masses.<br>In 1917, after several military escalations, the United States officially declared war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. It soon became important to Wilson to not only succeed in the war effort, but to garner support and tamp down on any opposition. Via executive order, Wilson formed the Committee on Public Information to influence public opinion through the use of all available media — including posters, pamphlets, newspaper releases, films, school campaigns, and more. A volunteer pool of 75,000 men was recruited for the effort, which spanned the country in various languages and formats.

James Montgomery Flagg’s 1917 poster of Uncle Sam, based on the British Lord Kitchener poster from three years before, was used to recruit soldiers into the U.S. Army for both World Wars I and II. The CPI commissioned the poster and Flagg used his own face for Uncle...