A bronze plaque commemorating the Ku Klux Klan should be removed from the science centre at West Point, a congressional commission said, even though it falls outside the panel’s remit because the racist terror group was formed after the American civil war.
The Naming Commission was established in March 2021, in the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd and the protests for racial justice it inspired.
The eight-member panel is tasked with recommending which US military assets should be renamed, to remove associations with Confederates who fought to maintain slavery.
In May, the commissioners released part one of their report, concerning the renaming of military bases – a process opposed by conservatives including Donald Trump.
For one example, the commission said Fort Benning, a major infantry base in Georgia named for a Confederate general, should be renamed Fort Hal and Julie Moore, after a Vietnam-era soldier and his wife, who changed the way the US army notifies next of kin when soldiers die in combat.
In part two of its report, published this week, the commission considered the US Military Academy, at West Point in New York, and the US Naval Academy, at Annapolis in Maryland.
Regarding West Point, the report said: “On the triptych at the entrance to Bartlett Hall, there is a mounted marker bearing the words, ‘Ku Klux Klan’. The marker falls outside the remit of the commission. However, there are clearly ties in the KKK to the Confederacy.”
The Klan was founded in Tennessee in 1865, in the aftermath of the defeat of the slave-holding south. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a general whose troops massacred Black Union soldiers at Fort Pillow in April 1864, was one of the first Klan leaders.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, defines “three periods of significant [Klan] strength in American history”.
They are: “The reconstruction era of the 19th century, when newly freed slaves began to hold office and own land; the 1920s, when the country’s fierce anti-immigrant mood drove Klan membership into the millions; and, finally, at the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, when Blacks and other minorities began to demand equal treatment under the law.”
The Naming Commission “encourage[d] the secretary of defense to address DoD assets that highlight the KKK”. The secretary, Lloyd Austin, is a West Point graduate. He is also African American.
The two other panels on the West Point triptych “specifically commemorate people who voluntarily served in the Confederacy”, including Robert E Lee, Jeb Stuart and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The commission said those panels “should be modified to remove the names and images”.
Ty Seidule, a commissioner, retired brigadier general and emeritus West Point history professor now teaching at Hamilton College, who wrote a book about the academy and its ties to Lee, the most famous Confederate general, told the New York Times the Klan plaque was included in the report “because we thought it was wrong”.
Aundrea L Matthews, a former West Point arts director, said it was not clear how the plaque came to hang in Bartlett Hall.
“It was shocking for most people to see,” she said.
Matthews is president of the Buffalo Soldiers Association of West Point, which commemorates Black cavalrymen. She said the academy had made progress on diversity, including erecting a statue of a Buffalo Soldier by athletic fields named in their honour.
The commission recommended renaming 12 West Point assets. Five, including a barracks and a gate, were named for Lee.
A West Point spokesperson said: “As a values-based institution, we are fully committed to creating a climate where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.”
