Panel recommends new names for Fort Polk, other Army bases

WASHINGTON (AP) — An independent commission is recommending new names for nine Army posts that commemorated Confederate officers.

Among their recommendations: Fort Polk, in Louisiana, would be renamed Fort Johnson, after Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black Medal of Honor recipient who served in the Army in World War I.

Fort Bragg in North Carolina would become Fort Liberty and Fort Gordon in Georgia would become Fort Eisenhower.

The recommendations are the latest step in a broader effort by the military to confront racial injustice, most recently in the aftermath of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The list recommends naming bases for the first time after women and Black soldiers.

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