Confederate Fort Names Change proposal
Originally published September 2022 · pp. 17
Confederate Fort Names Change proposal On May 24 the commission to consider renaming installations currently named after Confederates released its initial report. The proposed changes to army forts are: •
Fort AP Hill, Va., to Fort Walker, for Dr. Mary Edwards Walker
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Fort Benning, Ga., to Fort Moore, for Lieutenant General Hal Moore and Julia Moore
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Fort Bragg, N.C., to Fort Liberty
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Fort Gordon, Ga., to Fort Eisenhower, for General Eisenhower
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Fort Hood, Texas, to Fort Cavazos, for General Richard Cavazos
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Fort Lee, Va., to Fort Gregg-Adams, for Lieutenant General Gregg and Lieutenant Colonel Adams
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Fort Pickett, Va., to Fort Barfoot, for Technical Sergeant Van Barfoot
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Fort Polk, La., to Fort Johnson, for Sergeant William Henry Johnson
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Fort Rucker, Ala., to Fort Novosel, for Chief Warrant Officer Michael Novosel
The commission of eight people included six former service members (ranging in rank from four-star to sergeant), one U.S. House member (from Georgia), and one person who formerly served in the State and Defense Departments. Buildings and streets named for Confederates on other army, navy, and air force installations will also be considered for renaming. More about the commission’s origins, objectives, members, and process is at https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/The_Naming_Commission. The commission’s final report is to be delivered to Congress by October 1, 2023, and the names must change by January 1, 2024.
The Commission is chartered with five primary activities: Assessing the cost of renaming or removing names, symbols, displays, monuments, or paraphernalia that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America. Developing procedures and criteria to assess whether an existing name, symbol, monument, display, or paraphernalia commemorates the Confederate States of America or person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America. Recommending procedures for renaming assets of the Department of Defense to prevent commemoration of the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America. Developing a plan to remove names, symbols, displays, monuments, or paraphernalia that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from assets of the Department of Defense, within the timeline established by this Act. Including in the plan procedures and criteria for collecting and incorporating local sensitivities associated with naming or renaming of assets of the Department of Defense. The Commission was authorized $2 million to conduct its work, and must brief the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on its progress by October 1, 2021, and then present a final briefing and written report to the armed services committees by October 1, 2022. The Commission meets biweekly and will brief the Secretary of Defense on its progress and recommendations. The Commission’s focus throughout the summer and fall of 2021 comprised visiting the nine Army installations named for those who voluntarily served in the Confederacy. The Commission is meeting with installation leadership to gauge their level of planning and their local assessments. The Commission has expanded their investigation of military assets to include assets with names that commemorate other Civil War era events or places to see if the name has a connection to the Confederacy. Examples given are USS Antietam (CG-54) and Fort Belvoir. Until December 1, 2021, the Commission had collected suggestions from the general public for possible replacement names for the military assets that the Department of Defense may finally decide to rename. After receiving thousands of suggestions, the Commission posted a list of 90 names in March 2022 that it plans to consider as possible replacement names for the nine Army installations before the list is further narrowed to produce the list of finalists. In March 2022, the Commission determined that Fort Belvoir does not meet the criteria provided in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act for a renaming recommendation but the commission recommends that the Department of Defense conduct its own naming review of the post, based on results of the commission’s historical research. At end of the same month, the Commission posted a list of 758 Defense Department items at U.S. military installations in the United States, Germany and Japan that have ties to the Confederacy. Many of the items on the list are streets, signs, paintings and buildings. Included on the list, Arlington National Cemetery has a memorial dedicated to Confederate war dead which includes “highly sanitized depictions of slavery.”