RENAME FORT BRAGG
Nonprofit group sponsors essay contest
Change Our Name-fort Bragg is a grassroots committee whose goal is to inform the public about the history of Fort Bragg and its namesake. The group came about in 2020 from casual discussions about the negative connotations associated with the city's name. Now a nonprofit with approximately 300 members, the organization believes the local citizenry will desire a change in the city's name once they are aware of the facts surrounding the city's name, the history of the military garrison of Fort Bragg, and its namesake, Confederate General Braxton Bragg.
This issue first came before the Fort Bragg City Council in July of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, and council members appointed an ad hoc Citizens Committee to consider a name change. After a year and a half of meetings, the Citizens Committee reported to the City Council in January of 2022. They had reached no consensus
about changing the city's name, but they did propose recommendations for actions the city could consider instead.
During this time, many states across the country engaged in their own reckonings with history. Confederate statues were removed, state flags changed, and buildings and streets renamed. California changed many names as well. In 2015, the Black Caucus of the Sacramento Legislature had officially asked Fort Bragg to change its name because of its link to a Confederate general, but no action was taken.
Change Our Name-fort Bragg has no connection to the ad hoc committee; it is independent and self-funded. The group does not believe that the ad hoc committee's alternative actions go far enough to address the necessity for racial justice. Board Chair Phil Zwerling said, “There's a longer view to this.” Not only does the city's name reference a Confederate general, whom Zwerling refers to as “a traitor,” Zwerling also points to the military post's inhumane treatment of the Pomo tribes living along the coast.
Zwerling, who has listened to the Pomo oral history passed down to descendants, described how the Pomo, Yuki, Wappo, and others were fenced into a reservation where some starved to death. They had been traditional hunters and gatherers who received very inadequate food allocations from their reservation caretakers. Later they were forcibly marched to Round Valley.
Zwerling said, “People ought to know what the history of this city actually is, and the essay contest seemed a natural progression.” The essay contest, he said, “is a way to reward students for doing the research. Young people can lead adults into the future.”
First Prize awards $1000; the second prize is $500 and the third prize is $200. Contest judges are not connected to the nonprofit group itself. Zwerling explained that “the name change is a goal, but the process is at least as important as that goal.” He added, “It allows a discussion of why these symbols of the Confederacy are still so powerful.”
There is plenty more history about the reservation and Braxton Bragg himself that Zwerling hopes essay contenders will learn. The essay contest open to Fort Bragg High School students is the nonprofit's opportunity to encourage students to educate themselves about the city's history and write thoughtful essays either supporting or dismissing the proposal of a name change for Fort Bragg.
Zwerling noted that Fort Bragg Middle School and Fort
Bragg High School are the only two public schools left in California named after Confederates. Even the renowned Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina will be officially renamed Fort Liberty by the end of 2023. Nine other federal military bases have already changed their names.
Army First Lieutenant Horatio G. Gibson, charged with establishing a new garrison in 1857 on the Mendocino Indian Reservation, decided to honor a fellow Army captain who had saved American troops during the Mexican-american War at the Battle of Buena Vista. Bragg's previous war experience was as an artillery officer in the Second Seminole War in Florida in 1840. Along with some other graduates of West Point, he later chose to join the Confederate Army.
As early as 1863, the captain commanding Fort Humboldt had written to the United States War Department in Washington D.C. informing leadership that Fort Bragg was named after a Confederate. Although the War Department did not move to change the fort's name, the Fort Bragg military garrison was decommissioned after the Civil War in 1867. The Mendocino Indian Reservation had been closed in 1866, and the federal
government later offered the tribal lands to settlers at $1.25 per acre.
Fort Bragg became an incorporated city in 1889 and took as its name Fort Bragg, what locals still called the area long after the fort closed.
As most locals know, Fort Bragg thrived for decades in the logging and mill industry. That 125 years of logging history are what locals are most familiar with because it also encompasses their own multi-generational family histories.
Zwerling sees a community disconnected from its earlier history tied to the indigenous people who also still live in this area and are unaware of the slave owner whose name the city bears. The essay contest, he said, can “prompt discussion about what kind of city we want and what we want its name to represent.” He wants the community to understand his group's purpose. “The name carries a very heavy load,” he said, “and I haven't really found anybody who is proud of the Fort or proud of Braxton Bragg.”
He added, “We consider ourselves an educational organization, and our feeling is that when people are educated, they're going to agree that the name is an insult to indigenous people and an insult to African Americans. It's also an insult to our military veterans because, as a Confederate, Braxton Bragg was a traitor to his country.”
The rules, expectations, and deadlines for the essay contest are posted on the nonprofit's website at changeournamefortbragg. com. Click on “Essay Contest” in the Menu bar at the top of the page.