The United States will rename nine Army bases honoring figures in the Confederacy of Slavery by early 2024, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Thursday.
Nationwide protests against racism and police brutality sparked by the 2020 killing of George Floyd sparked renewed calls for the bases to be renamed, and Congress ordered them changed despite opposition from then-President Donald Trump.
“The names of these properties and facilities should inspire all who call them home, fully reflect the history and values ??of the United States, and commemorate the best of the Republic that we are all sworn to protect,” Austin wrote in a memo on the decision.
The 2021 Defense Budget required the establishment of a commission to plan the removal of Confederate-related “names, symbols, displays, monuments, or paraphernalia” from Department of Defense property and gave the Secretary three years to implement his recommendations.
“I am committed to implementing all of the commission’s recommendations as quickly as possible,” Austin said in the memo, adding that this will happen when a 90-day waiting period expires in December and be completed “no later than January 1, 2024.” becomes .”
The changes “will give proud new names that are rooted in their local communities and honor American heroes whose bravery, bravery and patriotism embody the very best of the US military,” he wrote.
Trump opposed the renaming effort, tweeting in 2020 that his administration “won’t even consider” changing the names of the bases, which “have become part of a great American legacy and a history of victory, victory, and freedom.”
He vetoed the defense bill, but Congress overruled it in a swipe at the president, who had by then lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
All of the renamed bases are in Southern states that broke away from the United States and formed the Confederacy that lost the 1861-1865 Civil War.
These include Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the US Army Infantry School, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the US Special Forces Command and the storied 82nd Airborne Division.
Fort Benning is currently named for Brigadier General Henry Benning, a fervent secessionist who championed white racial “supremacy.”
The commission recommended renaming it Fort Moore to honor US Lieutenant General Hal Moore – who commanded American troops during their first major battle with North Vietnamese forces – and his wife Julia.
Fort Bragg, named for Major General Braxton Bragg, an incompetent general who was relieved of his command, is recommended to become Fort Liberty.
