Get rid of the names of Confederate officers like Robert E. Lee and others at monuments and buildings at West Point and the Naval Academy.
That’s the recommendation of the U.S. Naming Commission in its latest report to Congress, released on Monday.
"The commissioners do not make these recommendations with any intention of 'erasing history,’" the report reads. “The facts of the past remain and the commissioners are confident the history of the Civil War will continue to be taught at all service academies with all the quality and complex detail our national past deserves.”
Instead of Confederates, the military academies should highlight the “greatest examples, traditions and leaders of our past,” the document states.
The eight-member commission is chaired by retired Navy Adm. Michelle Howard and was created by Congress in Jan. 2021 in response to a national furor over Confederate monuments and memorials.
According to the report, among the sites honoring Confederates at West Point are the Reconciliation Plaza monument. Lee’s name can also be found on five other landmarks and a child development center there. The document juxtaposes the monuments that honor Confederates by noting that some cadets live in barracks named for those who fought for the Union during the Civil War and against Nazi Germany during World War II.
Related
"Commemorating the Confederacy alongside those graduates honors men who fought against the United States of America, and whose cause sought to destroy the nation as we know it,” the document reads.
The report also points out that the monuments at West Point honoring the Confederacy were not added until the 1930s.
At the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., the commission recommended the renaming of Maury Hall as well as a road and the superintendent’s home which are named for a sailor who fought for the Confederacy.
The commission released its first report in May to Congress. It recommended the renaming of nine Army bases named after Confederates.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
Related
