Dem
51
GOP
49
Even if someone is familiar with the politics and cultural milieu of late-19th-century America, it really is madness that there is a U.S. Army base named after Robert E. Lee. First of all, he literally led an armed rebellion against the United States. He should have been hanged as a traitor, not honored as a war hero. Second, he lost. The country has not named military bases after John Burgoyne, Arthur St. Clair, William Westmoreland, or the Detroit Lions, so why Lee? Third, he wasn't an especially great general. Good? OK, sure, but his reputation was propped up by the skilled performance of his subordinates, and by the fact that the Union generals he faced for the first half of the Civil War were pretty lousy.
Anyhow, it's not a secret that the staff historian is a sucker for stories about putting aside these Confederate-commemorating military names in favor of something more apropos. And this week, Fort Lee became Fort Gregg-Adams. The new signage is already in place.
The Gregg in Gregg-Adams is Arthur J. Gregg, who is Black. He joined the U.S. Army as a buck private while it was still segregated by race, and rose up the ranks, doing several tours of duty in Korea, Vietnam. He also served for several years at... wait for it... Fort Lee. By the time his career had come to a close, he was a three-star general. Also, he's still alive, which means he is the first person since the 19th century to have a military based named in his honor while still living.
The Adams, meanwhile, is the late Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley. She enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in July 1942 and quickly rose up the ranks. She was the first Black officer in WAAC, led the only all-Black company of WACs to serve abroad during World War II, and finished the war as the highest ranking Black female in the U.S. military. After, she worked at the Pentagon, the VA, and in academia, and was heavily involved in activism, including the Civil Rights Movement.
In short, the name of a man who fought to sustain white supremacy is being replaced by the names of two people who fought to destroy it. That would appear to be the very definition of "progress." Have a good weekend, all. (Z)