Eisenhower, Powell, Tubman Could Replace Confederate Names on Army Bases

A Naming Commission for military assets on Thursday disclosed 87 potential new names for nine Army installations currently named after Confederate generals.

Among the recommendations the commission made after "deliberat[ing] extensively over the thousands of possible new names suggested" include former President Dwight Eisenhower, former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, and abolitionist Harriet Tubman, according to AL.com.

These nine bases, which include Fort Polk in Louisiana, Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee and Fort Pickett in Virginia, Fort Rucker in Alabama, and Fort Hood in Texas, are all in former Confederate states and were named during the south’s Jim Crow era.

In the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which sets the Defense Department’s annual spending and policy priorities, Congress mandated a commission be formed to look at renaming bases with Confederate-linked names.

The commission plans to spend the next several months engaged with “installation leaders, personnel and their counterparts in local communities to discuss the names” before making its final decisions.

The commission’s final decisions are due to Congress on October 1^st.

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