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Soldiers listen as President Donald Trump speaks at Fort Bragg on June 10, 2025, in North Carolina. | Alex Brandon/AP

Trump Reverses Army Base Names in Latest DEI Purge

The announcement comes just four days before the Army’s multimillion dollar parade in Washington.
by Jack Detsch, Paul Mcleary via Politico on June 10, 2025
French Jesuits mapped the Gulf of Mexico, “Golphe da Mexique” in 1672 in an expedition lead by Father Jacques Marquette.

The Gulf of Mexico’s Long History of Colonization and Varying Names

Long before Trump expressed interest in a name change, conquerors have battled to claim the wealth of its rich waters.
by Petula Dvorak via Retropolis on January 13, 2025
Faneuil Hall in Boston at night.

Why Faneuil Hall Is a Metaphor for the American Revolution’s Complicated Definition of Liberty

How a lively market on Boston Harbor became part of many defining moments of the Colonial and Revolutionary eras.
by Michael Snyder via Smithsonian on January 8, 2025

Virginia School Board Votes to Restore Names of Confederate Leaders to Schools

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, a school board in Virginia stripped the names of Confederate military figures from two schools.
by Daniel Arkin via NBC News on May 9, 2024
An Audubon shearwater, named for John James Audubon, one of America's most famous birders and an enslaver

Dozens of Bird Names Honoring Enslavers and Racists Will be Changed

The American Ornithological Society says it will alter all human names of North American birds, starting with up to 80 species.
by Darryl Fears via Washington Post on November 1, 2023
Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg attends a ceremony on April 27, 2023, in which a military base was renamed in his honor.

Forts Cavazos, Barfoot and Liberty — New Names for Army Bases Honor New Heroes and Lasting Values

The last relics of ‘lost cause’ ideology are being removed, as a federal panel renames US military bases that honored Confederate generals.
by Jeff South via The Conversation on June 7, 2023
A man speaking to a veteran.

Treason Made Odious Again

Reflections from the Naming Commission, and the front lines of the army's war on the Lost Cause.
by Connor Williams via Muster on May 30, 2023
Birds spliced onto a cracked photograph of Winfield Scott.

The Fight Over Animal Names Has Reached a New Extreme

Forget changing only the names that honor the horrors of the past. Some biologists now argue no species should ever be named after a single individual.
by Ed Yong via The Atlantic on May 25, 2023
Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia outside the U.S. Capitol in 1965.

The U.S. Senate Has Three Buildings. Why Is One Still Named for a White Supremacist?

Georgia’s Richard Russell was an unrepentant racist. You’d think a name change would be a no-brainer. And yet...
by Pablo Manríquez via The New Republic on February 23, 2023
Artistic depiction of changing place names on a map of the United States, specifically the East Coast region..

How to Rename a Place

A little-known federal body gives official approval to what appears on maps. Now it is caught in the middle of the country’s upheaval over racism and language.
by David A. Graham via The Atlantic on January 27, 2022
The raised fists of a crowd of protesters.

We Have to Face History No Matter How Hard We Try to Erase It.

Let’s remember that performative anti-racism is as profitable politically as racism has been.
by Peter Van Buren via The American Conservative on July 5, 2021
McCown's longspur, now called the thick-billed longspur, in flight over a field.

In Defense of Bird Names

Why the rich historical names given to birds should not be scrubbed for the sake of political correctness.
by Helen Andrews via The American Conservative on May 20, 2021
Roosevelt Middle School sign with a red X on it.

The Holier-Than-Thou Crusade in San Francisco

The city’s move to rename schools will provide invaluable ammunition to Fox News.
by Gary Kamiya via The Atlantic on February 2, 2021
Fire insurance map heading for East Detroit

Blight by Association: Why a White Working-Class Suburb Changed Its Name

The stretches one Detroit suburb made to justify a name change — the ‘burb’s supposedly colorblind arguments were anything but.
by Kenneth Alyass via The Metropole on October 1, 2020

The Stench of Colonialism Mars These Bird Names. They Must Be Changed.

Having a species named after you is an honor. Not everyone deserves it.
by Gabriel Foley, Jordan Rutter via Washington Post on August 4, 2020

When to Rename a Building, and Why: Yale Adopts a New Approach

Yale adopts a new approach to deciding whether Calhoun College and other university properties need new names.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on December 2, 2016

Names in the Ivy League

The argument over renaming Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School is neither trivial nor simple.
by Joshua Rothman via The New Yorker on November 26, 2015
Soldiers walking past a sign that says Fort Liberty.

Pete Hegseth Just Did the Funniest Thing Imaginable

It’s Fort Bragg again. So why are Confederate heritage groups so mad?
by Kevin M. Levin via Slate on February 12, 2025
Soldiers and a tank, a Defense department seal, and Pete Hegseth.

Bring Back the War Department

If you want a clear strategy for winning wars, don’t play a semantic game with the name of the department that’s charged with the strategy’s execution.
by Elliot Ackerman via The Atlantic on December 5, 2024
Collage of photos of the Briggs family and the Brown family.

The Price of Being First: Effort to Rename Brown v. Board Reveals Family’s Pain

A failed quest to rename the famed school desegregation case for the South Carolina family who filed first is about more than legal recognition.
by Amanda Geduld via The 74 on January 23, 2024
Robert Millikan and Albert Einstein standing side by side.

The Posthumous Trials of Robert A. Millikan

Robert A. Millikan was once a beloved figure in American science. In 2021, his name was removed from buildings and awards. What happened?
by David Kordahl via 3 Quarks Daily on January 1, 2024
An honor guard displays the colors of Fort Bragg, as part of the ceremony earlier this month to rename it to Fort Liberty.

Who Was Fort Bragg Named After? The South’s Worst, Most Hated General.

Mike Pence and Ron DeSantis say they would restore the Fort Bragg name if elected. Its namesake was a “merciless tyrant” who helped lose the Civil War.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Washington Post on June 16, 2023
John Manuel Gandy, the namesake of a Hanover elementary school.

In Hanover, A Name is More than a Name

The sudden push to rename a historic school that educated scores of Black students reeks of revenge.
by Samantha Willis via Virginia Mercury on March 20, 2023
The author (left) talks with a student at the dedication ceremony for Annette Gordon-Reed Elementary School, October 2022.

A Historian Makes History in Texas

In the 1960s, Annette Gordon-Reed was the first Black child to enroll in a white school in her hometown. Now she reflects on having a new school there named for her.
by Annette Gordon-Reed via The Wall Street Journal on February 18, 2023
Brazilla Carroll Reece, Joseph McCarthy and Harry S. Truman with democratic donkeys in word bubbles.

The Real Origins of the “Democrat Party” Troll

We can’t blame Joe McCarthy for this one. (Though he was a fan.)
by Lawrence B. Glickman via Slate on January 21, 2023
Diaga Müller at the Onkel Toms Hütte U-Bahn station in Berlin.

A Berlin Subway Stop is Called ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ Some Black Germans Want Change.

Black Germans have used activism and scholarship to shed light on what they describe as Germany’s racist fascination with the American South.
by Meena Venkataramanan via Retropolis on November 27, 2022
The XVIII Airborne Corps Headquarters sign is displayed at Fort Bragg, N.C. on June 28, 2019.

Panel Unveils Nine Army Base Name Recommendations

The commission is charged with renaming bases whose names currently honor Confederate leaders.
by Davis Winkie, Leo Shane III via Army Times on May 24, 2022
Sketched portrait of Kim Stanley Robinson in front of a line drawing of the Sierra Navada landscape

Seeing Mars on Earth

Kim Stanley Robinson on how the High Sierra has influenced his science fiction.
by Kim Stanley Robinson, Jon Christensen via High Country News on May 24, 2022
A woman tends to a lawn at the corner of Confederate Lane and Plantation Parkway in the Mosby Woods neighborhood of Fairfax on Wednesday. The city is considering changing several names in the Civil War-themed development, but neighbors are divided. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

A Civil War Among Neighbors Over Confederate-Themed Streets

Debates between neighbors escalate over the use of Confederate names within a Northern Virginia neighborhood.
by Antonio Olivo via Washington Post on May 15, 2022
The Russell Senate Office Building.

The U.S. Senate’s Oldest Office Building Honors a Racist

Richard Russell was a segregationist and a fervent opponent of civil rights. So why does his name still adorn the Russell Senate Office Building?
by Walter Shapiro via The New Republic on April 26, 2021
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