Joe St. George
Fort Bragg gets new name, dropping Confederate namesake
Base officials said hundreds of people, including veterans, dignitaries and military families, attended the redesignation ceremony.
LEARN MOREPosted: 6:22 a.m. EDT Jun 8, 2023
Across the country, Confederate images have come down in droves in recent years.
From statues in Virginia to street signs in Louisiana, images from the Confederacy and Civil War are becoming harder to find.
That is becoming true with Confederate-named military installations as well. On Friday, President Joe Biden heads to Fort Liberty in North Carolina.
Fort Liberty used to be Fort Bragg, named after former Confederate commander Braxton Bragg. The name change is part of a multi-year effort by the Pentagon to rename nine controversial locations by the end of 2023.
In April, Fort Lee in Virginia was redesignated Fort Gregg-Adams, after Black service members Lt. Col. Charity Adams and Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg.
Gregg is the first to be alive while an installation was named in their honor.
"I hope this community will take pride in the name Fort Gregg-Adams," Gregg said during a ceremony in late April.
Of course, all this name-changing isn't cheap. The estimated cost to the military is close to $40 million to erase the past and create new signs.
The military is not the only government agency renaming sites and locations.
The Department of the Interior has committed to renaming 650 features and locations around the country deemed to be racist or offensive. All of these changes are a result of who won the last presidential election.
Back in 2020, President Joe Biden campaigned in support of changing controversial names, while former President Donald Trump said he would block the renaming of Confederate sites, believing it improperly erases history.
