(AFP) – President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has ordered the restoration of the names of several US military bases that honored officers who fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. While the redesignations will return the facilities to their original names, they come with a twist, as the bases will ostensibly honor other military personnel who have the same names, and not those who fought to maintain slavery in the South.
The Republican president made the announcement in a speech at the country’s largest military base, which he had renamed to Fort Bragg in February after predecessor Joe Biden changed it to Fort Liberty in 2023. “We are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee,” Trump told soldiers. “We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change.”
The move reverses a renaming process begun in the wake of the death of George Floyd, whose murder by police in 2020 focused a spotlight on systemic racism. A naming commission ultimately recommended hundreds of locations be redesignated, among them nine US Army bases named after Confederate officers who had fought for the South in defense of slavery during the country’s 1861-1865 Civil War.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that the new base names, while consistent with the last names of the Confederate officers, actually honor different military veterans. For example, while the original Fort Bragg honors Confederate general Braxton Bragg, the new name commemorates Roland L. Bragg, a little-known World War II hero, officials said.
Fort Robert E. Lee in Virginia, which was redesignated Fort Gregg-Adams in honor of two African-American servicemembers, was changed back to Fort Lee. But the new name honors Medal of Honor recipient Private Fitz Lee who fought in the Spanish-American War, said the Pentagon, and not the Robert E. Lee who was overall commander of the Confederate army.
© 2024 AFP
