Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller on Friday announced that the Department of Defense has taken its first steps in renaming DoD properties that carry Confederate namesakes.
Four individuals were officially appointed to the "Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America," according to a statement from Miller. The commission was provisioned in the recently passed 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.
The team includes White House directors and liaisons, the acting assistant secretary of defense for Legislative Affairs, and the principal deputy general counsel for the Army. The commission will also include four other members to be selected by the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Those appointments have not yet been made.
The commission has been tasked with identifying properties that must be renamed as well as symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that must be removed. The commission will also develop a formal plan to rename or remove all relevant properties. That plan is to be presented to Congress by October 2022.
The debate around the DoD's various properties honoring Confederate officers resurfaced at the beginning of June following the killing of George Floyd that ignited a movement across the country against racial injustices. Specifically, the question of renaming the Army's ten installations named for Confederates was revisited as it has been several times in the past. The Army originally said they would be open to "discussions" about renaming the installations -- before President Donald Trump announced that he would not consider it.
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"The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations ... Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!" Trump tweeted at the time.
At the beginning of July of last year, the Pentagon issued an effective ban on public displays of the Confederate flag after weeks of deliberation and public pressure to do so.
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"Flags are powerful symbols," then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper wrote in the memo announcing the new policy. "We must always remain focused on what unifies us: our sworn oath to the Constitution and our shared duty to defend the nation ... The flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and discipline, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols."
Miller's announcement comes at the end of a week during which the Confederate flag featured prominently in Washington, D.C. Notably, the flag was carried through the Capitol -- a feat that was never achieved during the Civil War.
The president, now permanently banned from Twitter, has made no comment regarding the progress made towards removing Confederate symbols from the DoD.