Five members of the Congressional Naming Commission discussed their roles in removing Confederate military commemorations at the Feb. 7 Common Ground event in the Chapel.
Moderator Connor Williams, PhD candidate at Yale University, conducted research and writing that informed the commission’s work and drafted the commission’s final report. Williams introduced the candidates and their repective career paths leading up to their positions on the Congressional Naming Commission.
Retd. Admiral Michelle Howard served 35 years in the U.S. Navy and was a commander of a ship, an expeditionary strike group, a task force and an entire naval theater. In 2014, she became the first woman to become a four star Admiral in the U.S. Navy.
The Honorable Lawrence Guzman Romo served 28 years in the Air Force and spent over 40 years in federal service. Romo was nominated by Obama in 2009 as the 12th Selective Service System director. He is the former National Commander of the American GI Forum of the United States and currently serves as its National Legislative Chair.
Mr. Jerry Buchanan served in the military as a drill sergeant. Buchanan is a civic leader in Oklahoma and formerly chaired the Tulsa County Republican Party.
Brigadier General Ty Seidule is a visiting professor of history at Hamilton and the executive director of Common Ground. Seidule served in the U.S. Army for 36 years and is an International Security Fellow at New America.
The commissioners were tasked by Congress with creating a plan for “assigning, modifying, or removing all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia to assets of the Department of Defense that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with them.” They were given $2 million to fund their work and a little under two years to accomplish their goal.
The Congressional Naming Committee finished on time and under budget with unanimous agreement on all major recommendations. Nine major army installations have new names because of the work of the committee, honoring American heroes who showed courage, valor, sacrifice, service and devotion of duty across rank, time, sex and race. The nine new namesakes have been widely praised by both sides of the aisle.
Seidule talked about the challenges involved with convincing people of the necessity of the commissioners’ work. Some people had reservations about their initiatives because they saw removing Confederate monuments as taking away from U.S. history. He disputed this argument by pointing out that “commemoration is about our values and it’s about who inspires us.” Seidule explained the historical context of the Confederate names that were seen on Army posts and monuments. “Confederates were the enemy,” he said. “They killed U.S. soldiers to create a new country based on human enslavement.” Seidule emphasized the importance of informing people of the stories behind those names. “Facts don’t often change people’s minds, but stories do,” he said. The commissioners made sure to tell people about why they were changing the names as well as about the names of the people they were changing them to.
To brainstorm ideas for potential base renaming, they received ideas through both a website and mail — Williams recalled receiving propsals on notebook paper in envelopes — with some names being repeated through six or seven independent streams. The Commission started with about 35,000 (including repetions) and eventually made their way to nine. 3,500 to 4,000 of the 35,000 were “unique names” that could be used as “actual suggestions” as opposed to humorous submissions such as “Britney Spears” or “Fort Will and Kate.”
The names suggested were then tabulated, with 90 sent to commissioners who whittled down the list, before the commission “went back to the bases” and found 10 names on which to receive feedback. Williams pointed out that the list could have looked extremely different, as “there [were] a lot of names of a lot of very deserving people who were not selected.”
The renaming ceremonies were described by several members of the panel as incredibly powerful. Seidule discussed how during visiting the sites upon their renaming, there was a sense of the communities taking on these stories as their own — as applied in the renaming of Fort Benning to Fort Moore in May of 2023. Seidule noted, “everytime we went to one of these ceremonies, it was such a moving experience, and one of the reasons we didn’t get as much blowback is when you name it after somebody else, particularly true American heroes who fought for this country we love, then it’s hard to be upset about it.”
Howard highlighted how ultimately “fate was our best shipmate” in the process of selecting names. Romo spoke about how overall, the process, while methodical was “real easy,” though did not always result in the way they all believed was best, a sentiment he expressed through his story of preferring a different name to the ultimate decision of Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg.
Buchanan, who went to every post-naming ceremony, highlighted how each post ceremony was unique, but the joy present was the same. He shared a story about the Fort Barfoot renaming, as it truly represented the Native American culture of the local area. Buchanan recalled calling his friend, Chief Gary Banton of the Choctaw tribe — the same tribe of Barfoot — to tell him about the potential renaming to which he responded, “Jerry, that’s incredible.” Banton and his council came to the ceremony and processsed three times in the inside of the hangar — “a dance of honor to honor the life of this man, to the beating of drums,” as Buchanan shared.
Howard said, regarding the list of new posting names, was “not about diversity” but about highlighting people who “reflect our armed forces and how they look, the way they have always looked, reflect the heroes of our armed forces and the heroes of those who have supported our armed forces.” Ultimately, Howard expressed how, “we have to have a group that reflects all of us, the ‘us’ in the United States and that’s what we have today. I’m very proud of that and I think every American can be very proud of that.”
Towards the end of the panel, two questions were heard in conjunction, one asking how these skills can be used in the future, particularly in dealing with monuments that do not fall in the military branch, and the other asking about future steps more generally.
In response, Seidule shared how local communities should be able to decide whether or not to take down monuments in their communities, citing how in the towns of Jacksonville and Charleston, where confederate monuments have been taken down without city council approval. “The problem that we have now is that many of the states in the former confederacy have passed state-level laws that prevent local communities from doing things that they want to do,” said Seidule. In response to this issue, he believes that parts in the federal administration that will face renaming issues, such as the National Parks Service, should work with Congress in support of these efforts. Seidule notes that the Commission’s ability to conduct renaming work was based on a law that Congress passed through elected representatives.
In response to the same questions, Romo highlighted the importance of education in communities in order to provide a greater sense of awareness, highlighting an example from San Antonio, where he is from. The namesake of the school where his father attended is commonly known as a poet, but not recalled for his negative racial perspectives and his time fighting in the Confederacy. He noted how if the students and alumni were educated on the issue, they may question the figure’s role in representing their institution.
Howard responded, acknowledging people’s astonishment at how “quiet” their work was completed, an observation she sees as a sign of the group’s success. She also shared her hopes for the legacy of the Commision sharing that all of the minutes from their meetings are archived and hopefully will be shared with the public soon in order for future groups who may hope to work through tough topics can use their work to support them.
On Feb. 28, Common Ground will be hosting a live recording of WCNY PBS’s show, “Ivory Tower,” the first installment of the “Ivory Tower on the Road” series.
