There are 10 Army bases with Confederate names some Democratic lawmakers want to change, including Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Hood in Texas. and they offered legislation on Friday demanding that the defense secretary rename them.
U.S. House Democrats, mostly African-American, proposed the legislation that argued that naming the installations after "individual who took up arms against the United States" undermined the military's commitment to "freedom, equality, and democratic governance," Politico said.
The other military bases are Camp Beauregard, Fort Polk, and Fort Rucker, in Louisiana; Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia; Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee, and Fort Pickett in Virginia, the website Defense One reported
Army Brig. Gen. Malcolm B. Frost said the bases were named based on history, per The Associated Press.
"Every Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a place in our military history," Frost said. "Accordingly, these historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies. It should be noted that the naming occurred in the spirit of reconciliation, not division."
According to the Center for Military History, during the World War II era, 1939 to1946, nearly all military installations defined as forts or camps were named after distinguished military individuals, including Confederate Army veterans, the AP said.
Jason Dempsey, a retired Army officer and now a researcher at the Center for a New American Security, told Politico that if the bill gets momentum, it likely will not come from the military.
"The military does not lead on these issues," Dempsey told Politico. "Military leaders are small 'c' conservatives, in that they don’t want to get ahead of anybody. And they’re also, by the way, products of their generations. All of the guys running the military now joined 35 to 40 years ago. They hate being seen as drivers of change on any contentious issue."
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