Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to restore the name of a U.S. Army base in North Carolina to that of a Confederate general, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.
At a North Carolina GOP convention on Friday, DeSantis said that if elected president, he would change the name of the newly christened Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg.
“It’s an iconic name and an iconic base, and we’re not going to let political correctness run amok in North Carolina,” DeSantis told the cheering GOP crowd.
Fort Bragg, named after Confederate general Braxton Bragg, was one of nine Army installations named after Confederates that are undergoing the process of a name change as part of a bipartisan defense appropriations bill in 2020.
The renamed bases include Fort Lee and Fort Pickett in Virginia, Fort Benning in Georgia, and Fort Hood in Texas.
The bases are being renamed after distinguished service members from history, including African American Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg; Lt. Col. Charity Adams, who led a unit of Black women officers in World War II; Lt. Gen. Hal Walker, awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in Vietnam; and Medal of Honor recipient Van Barfoot.
Fort Liberty was chosen by the naming commission because “liberty remains the greatest American value,” according to the Associated Press.
DeSantis was not the only GOP presidential candidate to call for restoring the Fort Bragg name. Former Vice President Mike Pence also called for renaming Fort Liberty at the same North Carolina event, according to NBC News.
Braxton Bragg was considered one of the least successful Confederate generals, leading the rebel army to a major defeat at Chattanooga in 1863. A 2016 book by Earl Hess was titled, “Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy.”
Fort Bragg was named after him in 1918, one of multiple army bases in the South named after Confederate generals during the Jim Crow era.
DeSantis signed the Stop WOKE Act, which limits how schools address race and gender issues, last year. This year, the state rejected an AP Black History course for alleged inclusion of “critical race theory” and recently postponed an African American history institute for public school teachers a week before its start.
A bill to prevent Florida cities from removing Confederate monuments died in committee during this year’s session, according to the Florida Times-Union, but its Republican sponsor pledged to file it again in 2024.
The NAACP issued a formal travel advisory last month, claiming Florida “is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”
DeSantis called the travel advisory “a total farce” in his presidential announcement on Twitter last month.
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June 13, 2023 at 01:51AM
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DeSantis wants Confederate general's name restored to army base - Orlando Sentinel
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