In the wake of the anti-Confederate hysteria that swept the country following the heinous June 17 attack on a black church in Charleston that killed 9, California state senator Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) has put forward a bill to ban the use of Confederate names for “schools, buildings and other public facilities.”
The immediate question is whether the bill–SB 539–would force a name change for Fort Bragg as well.
After all, the fort is named for Braxton Bragg, “a U.S. Army officer who later became a high-ranking Confederate general and close adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis [during the Civil War].”
According to The Sacramento Bee, Glazer’s spokesman, Steve Harmon, said the intent is not to apply the ban to an entire city, like Ft. Bragg. Rather, their goal is to remove names like “Robert E. Lee,” now associated with two public schools.
But the language of SB 539 does not seem to limit itself to two schools. The bill says:
On and after January 1, 2017, a name associated with the Confederate States of America shall not be used to name state or local property. If a name associated with the Confederate States of America is used to name state or local public property prior to January 1, 2017, the name shall be changed and any sign associated with the name shall be removed.
Because the bill focuses, in part, on “public facilities,” there appears to be an admission that it would at least effect a name change for “Fort Bragg City Hall,”
Just days after the heinous attack on Emanuel A.M.E. Church, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (R) sided with President Obama, Mitt Romney, and Jeb Bush in calling for the Confederate battle flag to be banished from the South Carolina capitol grounds. These calls were echoed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) calls for a statue of Kentucky-native Jefferson Davis to be removed from the Kentucky capitol rotunda.
Kentucky GOP candidate Matt Bevin joined McConnell in calling for the Davis statue to be banished.
Moreover, the Gettysburg bookstore quit selling items “featuring the Confederate flag” and Fort Sumter, the site where the Civil War began, and ceased flying Confederate flags.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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