SPLC Action Fund’s Lecia Brooks Responds to GOP-led Panel Decision to Remove Confederate Names on Military Assets

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The SPLC Action Fund’s Lecia Brooks released the following statement in response to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee adopting an amendment which will allow the Pentagon to remove the names of Confederate generals from military assets, including bases, installments, aircrafts, ships and other equipment within the next three years.
 
“The Armed Services Committee is taking the right action by quickly rejecting President Trump’s efforts to continue allowing these symbols of hate and oppression to represent our military. The names of traitors to our country should not be prominently placed in public spaces, such as government land, schools, and parks, and especially not recognized by any military assets.”
 
Earlier this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) sent letters to the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Air Force, the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the National Guard Bureau Chief urging them to remove Confederate symbols from all of their installations in the U.S. and abroad.
 
In 2018, the SPLC released an updated version of its Whose Heritage report, identifying nearly 1,800 Confederate monuments, parks, schools, state holidays and other symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces across the South and the nation.