A portrait of Accomplice Gen. Robert E. Lee in his Accomplice uniform with a slave guiding his horse within the background might be rehung in West Level’s library, the Army confirmed to Army.com on Friday.
The reinstallation, which was first reported by The New York Instances, marks the newest effort by the Trump administration to reverse the work of a congressionally mandated fee charged with scrubbing tributes to the Confederacy from the army.
In a short electronic mail Friday, an Army spokesperson confirmed to Army.com that the Instances report was correct. West Level didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, whereas the Pentagon deferred to the Army.
Learn Subsequent: Navy Will get Request for ICE, Nationwide Guard to Function Out of Chicago-Space Base
The portrait that was eliminated and now being reinstalled was first hung in 1952 throughout a excessive level for the Misplaced Trigger motion that seeks to recast the Confederacy’s struggle as a heroic wrestle unrelated to slavery.
President Donald Trump and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth beforehand introduced they have been restoring the names of 9 Army bases that have been named after Accomplice army leaders and reinstalling a Accomplice memorial at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.
The pair have argued they’re merely respecting historical past that was being erased by “woke lemmings” – as Hegseth phrased it in a social media submit in regards to the choice to revive the Arlington monument.
In actuality, the bases have been renamed, the memorial was eliminated and the Lee portrait was put into storage on the course of what was referred to as the Naming Fee.
Congress created the fee in 2020, overriding a veto Trump issued throughout his first time period, to look at take away Accomplice names, statues and different tributes from army property. The legislation additionally mandated that the Pentagon implement the fee’s suggestions.
Lawmakers in each events advocated for creating the fee amid a nationwide reckoning over the legacy of slavery after widespread racial justice protests in summer season 2020 in response to the police killing of George Floyd. The U.S. army, lawmakers argued, shouldn’t be honoring traitors who fought in opposition to the USA with a view to protect slavery, and it was gone time to right that mistake.
When the Trump administration restored the Accomplice names to the Army bases earlier this 12 months, it skirted the legislation by selecting totally different namesakes who’ve the identical final names because the Accomplice army leaders.
Lawmakers in each events have been irked by means of a authorized loophole and added an modification to this 12 months’s protection coverage invoice in search of to power the administration to comply with the legislation.
Officers haven’t articulated any comparable workaround for reinstalling the Lee portrait with out working afoul of the legislation.
Lee has a deep historical past with West Level that sophisticated the fee’s work there. He was a cadet on the academy, graduating second in his class in 1829, and returned to function its superintendent from 1852 to 1855, previous to the Civil Battle.
However, because the fee famous in its remaining report, Lee actively turned down a command submit within the Army initially of the Civil Battle and selected to struggle as a substitute for the Confederacy.
“The implications of his choices have been wide-ranging and damaging. Lee’s armies have been accountable for the deaths of extra United States troopers than virtually another enemy in our nation’s historical past,” the fee wrote in its report.
Finally, the fee determined to take a nuanced method to Lee’s presence on campus. Portraits of Lee in his Army uniform and references solely to his time as superintendent have been allowed to remain, however the fee unanimously beneficial eradicating the portrait of him within the Accomplice uniform. It additionally beneficial altering the names of a number of buildings and streets named after Lee.
“The commissioners don’t make these suggestions with any intention of ‘erasing historical past,’” the fee’s report stated. “The info of the previous stay, and the commissioners are assured the historical past of the Civil Battle will proceed to be taught in any respect service academies with all the standard and complicated element our nationwide previous deserves. Quite, they make these suggestions to affirm West Level’s lengthy custom of teaching future generations of America’s army leaders to characterize the perfect of our nationwide beliefs.”
Associated: West Level and Naval Academy Ought to Scrub Names of Accomplice Officers, Panel Tells Congress
Story Continues
