Fort Bragg shed its Confederate namesake Friday to become Fort Liberty in a ceremony some veterans view as a small but important step in making the U.S. Army more welcoming to Black service members. The change is the most prominent in a broad Department of Defense initiative to rename military installations bearing the name of confederate soldiers. It was prompted by the 2020 George Floyd protests. A naming commission estimates the cost of renaming the base will be about $6.37 million. The commission visited the base and met with and members of the surrounding community to solicit their input. The North Carolina base was originally named in 1918 for Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg.
This is a good move. There will always be some who claim “it’ll always be Bragg for me!” and that’s okay. Having spent time at Liberty (Bragg), Moore (Benning) and Johnson (Polk) it will always be difficult to separate the names from the memories I have of them. People can have their memories, but that doesn’t mean we should continue to enshrine the names of traitors to the nation, people who don’t embody the ideals we claim to uphold.
We should work to be better. and if that means that future soldiers make memories at Ft. Liberty instead of Ft. Bragg, that’s a small step in the right direction.
This is a good move. There will always be some who claim “it’ll always be Bragg for me!” and that’s okay. Having spent time at Liberty (Bragg), Moore (Benning) and Johnson (Polk) it will always be difficult to separate the names from the memories I have of them. People can have their memories, but that doesn’t mean we should continue to enshrine the names of traitors to the nation, people who don’t embody the ideals we claim to uphold.
We should work to be better. and if that means that future soldiers make memories at Ft. Liberty instead of Ft. Bragg, that’s a small step in the right direction.