Black lawmakers see 'opportune starting point' to honor minorities by renaming Fort Lee

WASHINGTON — Rep. Donald McEachin's campaign to rename Fort Lee after a Black retired Army general continued Monday as the Virginia Democrat got more than 20 members of the Congressional Black Caucus to co-write a letter to the Pentagon panel that is charge of assigning the new military installation names.

The letter is McEachin's latest effort to get the Prince George County post named for Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg, who launched his 35-year military career at then-Camp Lee and retired as one of the leaders of Army logistics. Last month, he co-authored a letter with  Del. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, and Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham to ask for the name "Fort Arthur Gregg." The month before, he and House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, wrote a letter making the same request.

Last year, over the veto of then-President Donald Trump, Congress passed a Defense budget bill with a caveat that 11 Southern military installations that bore the names of Confederate leaders or had a tie to the Confederacy must change their names within the next three years or risk losing valuable Defense dollars. Four of the bases are in Virginia — Fort Lee here, Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline County, Fort Pickett in Nottoway County and Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County.

Lee, Hill and Pickett were all Confederate generals in the Civil War. Fort Belvoir is named for a former plantation that was located near its site.

Related:McEachin suggests name change for Fort Lee

In the letter sent Monday, the CBC said it was reiterating " our support for the Naming Commission’s important and long-overdue mission to begin the process of renaming military installations honoring individuals who committed treason to preserve the institution of slavery in the United States."

The group's letter also noted how renaming Fort Lee in Gregg's honor would reflect the importance that the military places on diversity and inclusiveness. Currently there are no military bases anywhere in the United States named after Black soldiers.

"It is imperative that the names of military installations, ships, buildings, and other property reflect that as well," the letter read. "For far too long the contributions and sacrifices of African American servicemembers have not been adequately represented in the military. Black servicemembers have participated in every war the United States has fought since our nation’s founding and yet the dedication that these brave men and women have shown is not reflected in the names of our military institutions."

Changing Fort Lee's name is "an opportune starting point" for recognizing those contributions, the CBC said.

"As the Naming Commission seeks to rename Fort Lee, we can think of no better course of action than to rededicate the Fort after Lt. Gen. Gregg who started his military career at the Fort in the segregated South of the 1940’s and through hard work and perseverance rose to the rank of three-star general and exemplified the best of America," the group's letter read.

Among those representatives signing the letter was Clyburn and Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia. The signers includes members of Congress from Southern states where posts are named for Confederate officers.

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Veteran journalist Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is the regional daily news coach for the USA TODAY Network Southeast Region's Unified Central group, which includes Virginia, West Virginia and portions of North Carolina. He is based at The Progress-Index in Petersburg, Virginia. Contact Bill at batkinson@progress-index.com, and follow him on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.