A California city named for a Confederate general considers changing its name

As national protests over the deaths of Black men in police custody continue, a California city named after a Confederate general may ask voters if the city should change its name.

Fort Bragg, located in Mendocino County on the Northern California coast, will consider the question at an upcoming City Council meeting, a post to the city’s Facebook page says.

“Responding to many requests (some local and many not) that the City of Fort Bragg, California change its name to avoid any connotation associated with Confederate Army General Braxton Bragg, Fort Bragg Mayor Will Lee would like to announce that at the June 22, 2020 Regular City Council meeting, the City Council will discuss whether to place the question of changing the City’s name on the ballot in November for City residents to decide,” the post reads.

Fort Bragg, which has a population of 7,300 according to the U.S. Census Bureau, began before the Civil War as a U.S. Army fort named for the founder’s commanding officer, Gen. Braxton Bragg, according to a history on Mendocino Fun.

The fort was eventually evacuated and Bragg later left the Army to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War, according to the site. The area became a logging town in the 1880s.

Fort Bragg is now known for its beaches, including Glass Beach, littered with sea glass, along with art galleries, Noyo Harbor, a botanical garden and other tourist attractions, Visit Fort Bragg reports.

Bragg went on to serve as the commander of the Army of Tennessee in the war, but was sacked after losing a battle at Chattanooga to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, a History.com biography reports. He died in 1876 after working as a civil engineer in Alabama and Texas.

Reaction to the city’s Facebook announcement appeared to be mostly negative.

“Fort Snowflake?” asked one commenter on the Facebook post.

“Sheep,” read another comment. Others suggested derogatory names mocking the area’s problems with poverty and methamphetamine use. But several others suggested renaming the town Noyo after the nearby river and harbor.

The Sacramento Valley office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also expressed support for putting the name change up for a vote in a news release emailed to McClatchy News.

“We can’t continue honoring and uplifting the names of those who were willing to tear this country apart to defend the scourge of slavery,” said Basim Elkarra, executive director of the local office, in the release.

It’s not the first time Fort Bragg has considered the question of renaming, The Times Standard reports. In 2015, Tony Thurmond, then a member of the California Assembly, introduced legislation requiring the city to change its name.

“The man never set foot in our town, we have no statues, and we’re Fort Bragg because we’re Fort Bragg gosh darn-it, and we’re proud of being from Fort Bragg, and we don’t want anyone from outside coming in and telling us to change our name,” said Lindy Peters, then mayor of Fort Bragg, according to the publication.

Peters, who still serves on the City Council, also cited the cost of changing postal addresses for businesses and other institutions as another complication, The Times Standard reported.

National protests erupted after video emerged of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck as he begged for air during his May 25 arrest on suspicion of fraud.

Floyd, a Black man, later died. Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, and three other officers have been fired and charged in his death.

Some of the protests, which have spread from Minneapolis across the nation, have been blamed for clashes with police, fires and other unrest.

The violence and thefts involve much smaller groups at mostly peaceful gatherings, authorities say. The vast majority of the protesters across the nation have been “peaceful demonstrators calling for change,” law enforcement officials told ABC News.

Symbols of the Confederacy have become a particular target of the protesters.

Protesters have toppled several Confederate statues, while others have been removed for safekeeping by local officials. NASCAR has banned the Confederate flag and other paraphernalia from events, as have some branches of the military.

The U.S. military also is considering changing the names of 10 bases named for Confederate generals, including Fort Bragg in North Carolina, also named for Braxton Bragg, McClatchy News previously reported.

President Donald Trump has opposed the idea, but a U.S. Senate panel has endorsed changing the names.

This story was originally published June 14, 2020 at 2:47 PM with the headline "A California city named for a Confederate general considers changing its name."