Legislative Black Caucus members ask Fort Bragg to change name

[struggle4progress]

BY GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
July 16, 2015, 8:13PM

The California Legislative Black Caucus has added its voice to a call for Fort Bragg officials to rename the Mendocino Coast city, potentially breathing new life into a debate that had been largely dismissed as silly by residents and officials in the former logging town with some 7,200 residents.

On Thursday, the caucus sent a letter to the city signed by eight of its 12 members.

“Fort Bragg is known for its strong sense of community, natural beauty and forward vision. It is also a very diverse community, with residents of many ethnicities and nationalities. But the name Bragg comes from a darker history: Braxton Bragg served as a military adviser to the president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, and as a general in the Confederate Army who led many bloody battles against the Union. He personally owned 105 slaves as he fought to preserve slavery. This is not the legacy that your city or any city should be associated with,” the letter states ...

Braxton Bragg was a career U.S. Army officer when his name was bestowed upon a Mendocino County fort he never visited. He resigned from the Army in 1856 and purchased a sugar plantation in Louisiana. He became a general — one historians widely consider inept — in the Confederate Army in 1861 after the Civil War began. Fort Bragg was established in 1857, four years before the Civil War began. It was abandoned in 1864 ...

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4216385-181/legislative-black-caucus-members-ask

[951-Riverside]

1. Yes! Its about time, there are several US bases named after Confederate Traitors

It should be renamed to Fort Parks (after Rosa Parks), Fort Tubman (after Harriet Tubman) or perhaps a native american warrior.

How come we can talk about flags on state buildings and on license plates but renaming US bases is offlimits?

I'm glad to see this group is leading the charge

[struggle4progress]

3. I agree the military base should be renamed but the OP is about a CA town

also named Fort Bragg. Both the military installation (established 1918) and the CA town (established around 1857) are named after Braxton Bragg. The town name comes from the name of a former fort once locally established there

[deathrind]

2. This is getting...

Ridiculous. We can get rid of all references to the civil war and pretend it did not happen but that does nothing to address the real issue here in a positive way, in fact it will have the opposite effect, which is already taking place.