The following is a press release issued by Change Our Name Fort Bragg:
Change Our Name Fort Bragg Invites the public to a Teach-in on Wednesday, January 3, at 7:30 p.m. at the Fort Bragg Library Community Room, 499 E Laurel St, Fort Bragg.
A local grass roots non-profit, Change Our Name Fort Bragg is dedicated to an educational process that leads to changing the name of Fort Bragg so that it no longer honors a military Fort that dispossessed Indigenous people or Braxton Bragg, a Confederate General. who waged war against our country.
Envisioned as a program to educate attendees about the issues involved in the name change and to hear neighbors’ ideas, the teach-in will last about one hour and will feature two speakers and a question and answer/discussion period.
Speakers will be:
Grace Maria Eberhardt, a PhD student in history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she researches twentieth-century histories of biology, eugenics, race, and ethnicity in the U.S. Grace led the movement to change the name of the Slater Museum of Natural History at the University of Puget Sound, her alma Mater, which was named after a professor who taught eugenics post-WWII.
Buffey Wright Bourassa facilitates communication to cultivate and enhance relationships, with expertise in Tribal engagement consultation, capacity development, strategic implementation, and collaboration. She is a member of the Sherwood Valley Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians and has ancestral connections to the Little River Pomo, Wiyot, and Pinoleville Pomo. Currently, she holds the position of Tribal Secretary on the Sherwood Valley Tribal Council and is an engaged member of the Willits Rotary Club.
Discussing a controversial topic requires civility and respect for the opinions of others. This program is neither sponsored by nor affiliated with the Mendocino County Library/Museum.
This program is free and open to all.
for further information: changeournamefortbragg@gmail.com
I’m all about it. I can’t believe we don’t know what names we’re living under. But I wonder, will this bring people together or tear them apart. Will we actually be less racist under different names? And what should we name places then? Coastal Town 542? Names are habits. It’s people’s habits that need tweeking
“will we actually be less racist….?”
I don’t know who “we” is, but if YOU need a smoke screen to be less racist, maybe it’s time to look within, work on your own personal shadows and find peace in yourself for the sake of humanity and the collective. This race baiting BS that “the powers that be” are throwing at us is a deterrent to ACTUALLY be better…
Noyo?
I wish this organization would forget about our little town. How many times do they have to be told “no”?
In point of fact, the question has never been put to the only people who can decide it – the registered voters living within the city limits. First there will be a signature drive, which will need somewhere between 250 and 390 qualified signatures to cause a ballot initiative. And then a majority of the residents in the city will vote on it. That’s the law.
Please go away.
I live here, this is my home. Who are you to tell me or anyone to go away?
You’re right. In a knee-jerk reaction I assumed you were with the group or an advocate for changing the name. Are you affiliated with the change our name group? Do you advocate for changing the name of fort Bragg?
It doesn’t matter in the slightest whether I am or am not affiliated with the group. By what right do you presume to tell me to go away?
Bucks Mcgee is feeling triggered by his heritage. It’s a normal process to create ballot initiatives in the city. I don’t see an issue with changing the name. Keeping the name of a treasonous general seems counter productive to a country portraying itself as a democratic institution with the peaceful transfer of power Happy Saturnalia / Christmas to all.
Thank you for posting to demonstrate the level of thoughtful consideration that is brought to this discussion by the opponents to the question of changing the name. Some of us who live here don’t want to continue to honor and memorialize the murders and subjugation of innocent people nor those who committed acts of treason against the United States in the fight to preserve slavery.
Communist Marxism should have no place in our society.
The public turn-out for this “teach in” should be revealing.
The Library is a small venue, we generally fill it up with some people standing. We will b e recording the presentations and uploading them to the website and to the Facebook group.
Just some out of town leftists supporting local leftists on how they can try and hide history by changing a towns name because it triggers them. The towns name neither honors Braxton Bragg or the fort that some officer named after him. The towns name was inherited by being built where the fort was. However it is important to remember there was a fort here and why and what happened. Keeping the name will insure that knowledge remains no matter if it triggers a few transplanted leftists. Fort Bragg forever.
Fort Bragg for now. And for awhile after, at least. The notion that having a town named after you is not an honor is absurd. No one is trying to erase history. We Believe we deserve a better name. Nothing about the town’s history is reflected in the name Bragg and there were only a few years of the Fort. Confederate monuments and namesakes are being discarded all over the country. We can agree to disagree, but this is a growing movement locally because we want something better for the future. Please don’t mistake it as just being triggered. We want something we can be proud of.
local Pomo person, who is part of the tribe whose land was stolen under Bragg’s leadership and who were relocated by him, is not an “out of town leftist”
You must be the “out of towner”. A local would know Braxton Bragg was never here nor did he ‘lead’ anyone who was here.
True. He never stepped foot near here. Has nothing to do with the place. All the more reason to ditch the name!
Actually, few locals know anything about bragg or about the fort — that’s what we’re working to change.
The town was named by people who knew what had been done in the fort, the ethnic cleansing, involuntary servitude, and abuse of women and children. The Army itself began the process to change then name after learning of Bragg’s treason that caused the deaths of US Army personnel. It may be a Repugnicant tactic to pretend to ignorance of the facts, but the truth about the hidden history is increasingly coming out. And that history has been hidden, its lessons unlearned.
Again, the town was not “named” but adapted the place name that was here and accepted it. Yes they knew what happened here and were obviously not triggered by it as you are. Probably because it happened all across this nation since its’ founding. Was it right? No. Was it something to be proud of? No. But it is history and I have not found it be hidden since I moved here decades ago. But as I learned the history of the fort and the plight of the indigeousnous people who lived here not once have I thought “We should change the name of this town”. Just saying.
Flash, then write it in a history book… Put it in a museum. Let Fort Bragg residence vote their will.
Sorry, no. The town was named for the fort and bragg, commemorating both. The Army itself started to change the name, now it will be up to the voters living within the city limits to decide. If you are one of them, then you can vote your complacency.
The more well known Fort Bragg in NC was recently renamed Fort Liberty
One of the unspoken issues is how the current name relates to potential travelers to the area. Tourism is no small part of the area’s economy and increasingly people are making judgements about travel choices based on whether an area is inclusive and welcoming of all and not just holding onto the past. Many communities (especially in the US South) have discovered this problem as names and statues of legacy have kept people away.
The problem is those soft people come here and decide to stay .. then they try to change the place, wasting millions of dollars, everyone’s time and have the whole town at each other’s throats..
If “soft” means being respectful and hopeful and rejecting the Confederacy, that’s better than your “hard” ideal. And on what planet will it cost millions of dollars? Absurd. We’re better than Braxton!
They have to keep trying so their non profit can keep taking in money. The whole point is to spend money so they can skim off the top. 501 c 3 classic play.
They don’t even care if the name is actually changed, they just need to keep it going.
You claim to know a lot, Bucks. Got any proof to back up the revealing methane you’re putting out? Is that what you do with your non-profit?
Baseless claim aside, some of those proceeds are going to fund the reward money for the high school students with the best essays, because when the children learn about the failure and shame of the Fort and of Braxton Bragg, change will come soon enough.
Ab sounds more like the soft one who can’t handle a changing world even in Mendo. It’s a free country for people to live where they want. Including for the ones you disagree with on.
“Bragg is generally considered among the worst generals of the Civil War. Most of the battles he engaged in ended in defeat. Bragg was extremely unpopular with both the officers and ordinary men under his command, who criticized him for numerous perceived faults, including poor battlefield strategy, a quick temper, and overzealous discipline”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braxton_Bragg
My vote is for Edge of the Western World, CA. its catchy!
Just rename it Woke, California.
Jeez. Just change it to Fort Bragg.