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Daily Mail
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Trump aims to restore confederate names to seven military bases
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he was reinstating the names of seven military bases that had been named after Confederates, including their leader, Gen. Robert E. Lee. Trump made the announcement during his trip to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, which had briefly taken on the name 'Fort Liberty.' In February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (pictured) announced that it would be riverted to Fort Bragg, but would be named after a World War II hero, not the problematic Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. 'For a little breaking news, we are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee,' Trump told the crowd Tuesday. 'We won a lot of battles out of those forts,' he continued. 'And I'm superstitious, I like to keep it going right? I'm very superstitious, we want to keep it going, so that's a big story, I just announced it today to you for the first time.' Trump said he was pressured to wait and make the announcement during Saturday's parade marking his birthday and celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Army. 'I can't wait!' he said at Fort Bragg. 'I've got to talk to my friends here today.' The president's move makes good on a campaign promise he made, not in 2024, but in 2020. In the aftermath of George Floyd's death of Memorial Day weekend of 2020 and the 'Black Lives Matter' protests that sprung up from the incident, there were renewed calls to remove Confederate statues and names from public spaces. Trump resisted those calls - instead backing the 'Blue Lives Matter' movement, a counter-protest on the American right. Still Congress decided to act and the name change for military bases was included in a large defense package that earned bipartisan support. Even after he lost the election to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, he vetoed the military spending bill in December 2020 , which contained language to rename 10 bases originally named for Confederates. Congress - in another bipartisan vote - overrode Trump's veto. It's unclear why the president didn't mention Forts Beauregard and Benning in his announcement Tuesday, as they were both included in the defense spending bill. The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment. The process to rename the bases wrapped up in January 2023, during Biden's presidency - so Trump blamed his predecessor, despite members of his own party supporting the changes. A number of bases were renamed from Confederates to women and black Americans. 'The one and only Fort Bragg, the one and only Fort Bragg,' Trump said onstage Tuesday. 'But remember it was only that little brief moment that it wasn't called Fort Bragg. It was by the Biden administration. And we got it changed,' he touted. Fort Bragg, in the February change, was renamed after Roland L. Bragg, who the Pentagon described as a World War II fighter 'who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.' The original 'Bragg' was Braxton Bragg, who was a slaveowner. He was also so inept that he helped the Confederacy lose the Civil War to U.S. forces.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Trump shocks with plan to rename SEVEN military bases for Confederate soldiers after Biden-era renaming
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he was reinstating the names of seven military bases that had been named after Confederates, including their leader, Gen. Robert E. Lee. Trump made the announcement during his trip to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, which had briefly taken on the name 'Fort Liberty.' In February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that it would be riverted to Fort Bragg, but would be named after a World War II hero, not the problematic Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. 'For a little breaking news, we are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee,' Trump told the crowd Tuesday. 'We won a lot of battles out of those forts,' he continued. 'And I'm superstitious, I like to keep it going right? I'm very superstitious, we want to keep it going, so that's a big story, I just announced it today to you for the first time.' Trump said he was pressured to wait and make the announcement during Saturday's parade marking his birthday and celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Army. 'I can't wait!' he said at Fort Bragg. 'I've got to talk to my friends here today.' The president's move makes good on a campaign promise he made, not in 2024, but in 2020. In the aftermath of George Floyd's death of Memorial Day weekend of 2020 and the 'Black Lives Matter' protests that sprung up from the incident, there were renewed calls to remove Confederate statues and names from public spaces. Trump resisted those calls - instead backing the 'Blue Lives Matter' movement, a counter-protest on the American right. Still Congress decided to act and the name change for military bases was included in a large defense package that earned bipartisan support. Even after he lost the election to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, he vetoed the military spending bill in December 2020, which contained language to rename 10 bases originally named for Confederates. Congress - in a bipartisan vote - overrode Trump's veto. It's unclear why the president didn't mention Forts Beauregard and Benning in his announcement Tuesday, as they were both included in the defense spending bill. The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment. The process to rename the bases wrapped up in January 2023, during Biden's presidency - so Trump blamed his predecessor, despite members of his own party supporting the changes. A number of bases were renamed from Confederates to women and black Americans. 'The one and only Fort Bragg, the one and only Fort Bragg,' Trump said onstage Tuesday. 'But remember it was only that little brief moment that it wasn't called Fort Bragg. It was by the Biden administration.' 'And we got it changed,' he touted. Fort Bragg, in the February change, was renamed after Roland L. Bragg, who the Pentagon described as a World War II fighter 'who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.' The original 'Bragg' was Braxton Bragg, who was a slaveowner.
Washington Post
02-06-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Book Review: 'Charlottesville' a dramatic account of deadly 2017 rally and history behind it
Decades before the violent Unite the Right rally in 2017 in Charlottesville that drew white nationalists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, the city was targeted by a white supremacist who hoped to ignite a race war. To understand the 2017 Unite the Right rally, Deborah Baker writes in 'Charlottesville: An American Story,' readers have to go back to 1956 and John Kasper's trip to Charlottesville to protest school integration.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MS celebrates Jefferson Davis' birthday as a state holiday. What to know on Memorial Day
Mississippi honors Confederate President Jefferson Davis today. The Magnolia State isn't the only one to honor him with a state holiday or local celebration, but it is the only one to combine it with Memorial Day. It's the third of three Confederate holidays on the state calendar, starting with a celebration of Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King Jr. in February and Confederate Memorial Day in April. Here's what you need to know about when and why Mississippi celebrates Confederate holidays and what other states still honor them. Davis was born in Kentucky on June 3, 1808, but Mississippi pairs it with Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. The president of the Confederacy spent most of his life in the Magnolia State and served it in both houses of the U.S. Congress. The Davis family moved to the Mississippi Territory in 1812. In 1824, he graduated from West Point, the U.S. Military Academy and served in the U.S. Army, according to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Davis settled near family near Vicksburg, planted cotton and owned slaves in Warren County. In 1845, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and resigned in less than a year to fight with the Mississippi Rifles in the Mexican War. In 1847, he was wounded and later was appointed to fill a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1851, he resigned to run for governor of Mississippi but did not win. He campaigned for Franklin Pierce and served as the president's secretary of war. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1857. He resigned and announced Mississippi was seceding from the Union four years later. By October of 1861, he was president of the Confederate States of America. After Lee surrendered, Davis and his family ran but were later captured. He was held on treason charges for two years. The federal government dropped charges against him in 1869. By 1877, he moved to Beauvoir in Biloxi and died in New Orleans in 1889. The Biloxi building now serves as a presidential library. It's open daily and offers tours. The organization that maintains it will celebrate his 217th birthday on Saturday, May 31, with a showing of Shirley Temple's "The Littlest Rebel" and a Mississippi Rifles Honor Salute. Admission is $15 per person, and movie tickets cost another $2. Alabama also has a state holiday for Confederate President Jefferson Davis on the first Monday in June. In Florida, it's a local observance, according to but not an official state holiday that offices and schools or businesses would close for. Sitting with history: Mississippi senator uses Jefferson Davis' desk in US Congress today Yes. There were multiple bills to remove Lee's birthday and Confederate Memorial Day from the state calendar in the most recent regular session of the Mississippi Legislature. None were successful. Two U.S. states honor Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on the federal holiday for Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is always scheduled to take place on the third Monday in January. President Ronald Regan signed the bill creating the holiday into federal law in 1983. It was first observed in 1986. King was born on Jan. 15, 1929. When the federal holiday was adopted in the 1980s, Mississippi and Alabama lawmakers opted to add it to an existing holiday honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Many states in the South initially adopted this approach. Most, including Lee's home state of Virginia, have since dropped celebrating Lee, who was born on Jan. 19, 1807. Mississippi celebrated Confederate Memorial Day on Monday, April 28, this year. Only four states still honor the Civil War dead with a day off for public workers, though others still treat it as a holiday. The Magnolia State takes it a step further and celebrates April as Confederate Heritage Month. Confederate Memorial Day was created in Georgia on April 26, 1866. It honored the deaths of Confederate soldiers on the first anniversary of the day that Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Union Gen. William Sherman at Bennett Place, North Carolina. Many in the Confederacy felt that negotiation marked the end of the Civil War. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant two weeks earlier at Appomattox Court House, but Johnston stayed in the field with almost 90,000 soldiers. The holiday spread to the other Confederate states. Some changed their celebration dates to something more locally significant. In Alabama and Florida, it's on the fourth Monday in April. Alabama treats it as an official holiday. Texas celebrates it as a state holiday on Jan. 19. North and South Carolina celebrate on May 10, but state offices close only in South Carolina. June 3 is when Kentucky and Tennessee honor the dead from the Civil War, and Tennessee calls it Confederate Decoration Day. No. Mississippi does not honor Juneteenth, though it is a federal holiday. Juneteenth is a federal holiday that honors June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas were set free. The order for the state came about two and a half years after the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation. Many state holidays in Mississippi sync up with federal holidays, but not all of them, according to the list from the Department of Finance and Administration. Wednesday, Jan. 1: New Year's Day. Monday, Jan. 20: Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert E. Lee. Monday, Feb. 17: Washington's Birthday. Monday, April 28: Confederate Memorial Day. Monday, May 26: National Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis' birthday. Friday, July 4: Independence Day. Monday, Sept. 1: Labor Day. Tuesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day or Armistice Day. Thursday, Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day. Thursday, Dec. 25: Christmas Day. Here are the federal holidays in 2025, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Wednesday, Jan. 1: New Year's Day. Monday, Jan. 20: Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and Inauguration Day. Monday, Feb. 17: Washington's Birthday. Monday, May 26: Memorial Day. Thursday, June 19: Juneteenth National Independence Day. Friday, July 4: Independence Day. Monday, Sept. 1: Labor Day. Monday, Oct. 13: Columbus Day. Tuesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day. Thursday, Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day. Thursday, Dec. 25: Christmas Day. Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at bbolden@ This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi honors Confederate president on Memorial Day. What to know
