Confederate Names and Images Carry Baggage

Dear Editor Keeler,

Your editorial last week about the re-renaming of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, contains historical errors and misunderstanding.

As a grad student of history at the University of Alabama, I learned that Confederate place names and statues across the South had absolutely nothing to do with “an effort to ease tensions between the North and South, heal wounds and reunite the country,” as you stated. This is far from the truth.

Fort Bragg was named in 1918 (as you pointed out). The Civil War ended in 1865 and none of the efforts to honor the Confederacy took place until after most of its’ veterans (on both sides) had died. The elevation of Confederate “heroes” was part of white southern efforts to reassert domination. It’s not a coincidence that the Confederate statues, names and romanticism about “the lost cause,” took place right along with Jim Crow laws, the rise of the KKK and the scourge of lynching. All of them were designed to scare and oppress the black population.

Ultimately, in response, we had The Great Migration, during which 6 million people left the south between 1915 and 1970 with hopes to live without oppression, racism and Confederate ideology. This left the South more impoverished and far behind the rest of the country. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s began to change that, particularly in urban areas, but by many metrics the Deep South still suffers.

So, yes, Mr. Hegseth claims he renamed the fort for an obscure WW2 soldier named Bragg (wink, wink), whose service was certainly commendable - but not more than many others with different names. In reality, Fort Bragg, home to approximately 12 to 15,000 black US military members and their families, is once again an endorsement of the Confederate white supremacist it was named for. And that is intentional.

Respectfully,
Ruth Tonachel
Towanda Township

Printed in the Wyalusing Rocket Courier on 2/18/25

(Posted with the permission of the author.)