San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
EFFORT TO RENAME MILITARY BASES TURNS TO NEARBY COMMUNITIES
Public has offered 27,000 suggestions so far on website
Braxton Bragg was an illtempered, largely failed Confederate general from a slaveowning family whose history has been omitted from the training curriculum for troops on the installation that bears his name. But many service members and residents of the adjacent town have learned all about him in recent months.
Still, ambivalence about renaming Fort Bragg, the largest base in the nation, runs deep.
“In a sense, changing the name will be a loss,” said Sonji Clyburn, a veteran of Fort Bragg who lives here in Fayetteville, where at least two streets and several businesses are named after the base and everyone knows someone who was “back at Bragg.” But, she added, “I do understand people’s perspectives on this.”
Last year, Congress ordered that 10 Army posts be stripped of their Confederate names, a central piece of a larger American movement to dismantle Confederate symbols in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.
President Donald Trump vetoed the bipartisan legislation that contained the provision directing the military to change the base names. He singled out Fort Bragg in his objections during one interview, calling the base “a big deal.” His veto was easily overridden in his final days in office.
A commission appointed by Congress to oversee the renaming progress has asked communities surrounding the bases to play a role in picking the new names. The public may also suggest names on a website, which has so far logged 27,000 recommendations. “I will say some of those suggestions on the website are quite intense,” Michelle Howard, a retired naval admiral who is now the chairwoman of the commission, said this week. “There are some folks who are distinctly opposed, and the verbiage they use is quite deliberate.”
The commission, which has until 2022 to make its final recommendations, briefed lawmakers last week on its preliminary findings.
For some communities, the bases are an economic boon. Fort Bragg, which is home to the storied 82nd Airborne Division and the Special Forces, is also central to the identity of a region in the shadows of the Research Triangle to the north.
“A lot of people have spent a pivotal time in their lives here,” said Kathy Jensen, mayor pro tem of Fayetteville, a city with 208,501 residents that sits next to the base.
But since change is inevitable, communities have been suggesting alternatives. Some have pondered the names of obscure military figures, historic generals and service members killed in recent conflicts. Several people have suggested women, like Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, an American abolitionist and the only woman to ever receive the Medal of Honor, or Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who was born enslaved.
One suggestion for Fort Bragg is to simply rename it after Braxton Bragg’s cousin, Edward Bragg, who was a Union general. Some see it as a painless swap, others a diversion from the spirit of the process. “There is a lesson here,” said Wade Fowler, who was born and raised here and now runs a small barbecue joint. “Don’t name things after people.”
Communities have found themselves immersed in history-rich and, at times, painful excavations at meetings with commission members, town halls and other gatherings, commissioners and residents said. “For me it’s been really insightful,” said Jerald Mitchell, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Columbus, Ga., which is closely associated with Fort Benning, named after Brig. Gen. Henry L. Benning, who commanded Confederate troops at the Battle of Gettysburg.
“There are lots of people that are really excited about it because of the issues around equity and inclusion,” Mitchell said. “There are some people who don’t want the name to change. It’s not that they want to embrace Confederate symbolism; it’s because they identify the installation as a place, not a person . ... We are communicating that this is federal law — it’s going to happen, so we just need to be a part of it.”