By Brad Brooks and Idrees Ali
(Reuters) – U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday renamed the Military base Fort Liberty again to its unique identify of Fort Bragg, in accordance with a Division of Protection assertion, undoing a 2023 identify change pushed by racial justice protests.
The bottom, among the many world’s largest army installations, had been renamed Fort Liberty as a part of an effort to rechristen bases named for Accomplice officers.
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The transfer to shed Accomplice names for army bases got here within the wake of nationwide protests after the 2020 loss of life of George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“That is proper, Bragg is again,” Hegseth mentioned upon signing a memo ordering the identify change, in accordance with a video posted on the Division of Protection’s web site.
President Donald Trump had mentioned throughout a marketing campaign cease final yr in North Carolina that he needed to vary the bottom’s identify again to Fort Bragg, in accordance with native media stories.
Congress in 2021 handed laws forbidding the naming of bases after anybody who voluntarily served or held management within the Accomplice States of America, the breakaway republic of Southern states that fought in opposition to the U.S. within the Civil Warfare within the nineteenth Century.
Established in 1918, the North Carolina base was initially named for Basic Braxton Bragg, who served within the Accomplice Military through the Civil Warfare. It homes the Airborne and Particular Operations Forces and is residence to 57,000 troops, in accordance with its web site.
Hegseth sidestepped Congress’ provision banning Accomplice names by formally renaming Fort Bragg after Non-public First Class Roland Bragg, who “served with nice distinction throughout World Warfare II,” in accordance the memo ordering the identify change.
The renaming of Fort Bragg honors all U.S. troopers who’ve skilled to struggle and win U.S. wars, Hegseth wrote in his memo, “and is consistent with the set up’s esteemed and storied historical past.”
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado and Idrees Ali in Washington; Modifying by Gerry Doyle)
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