West Point should reconsider KKK plaque on science building: congressional panel
West Point, the revered military academy in upstate New York, should consider removing a plaque that pays homage to the Ku Klux Klan from its campus, a Congressional panel suggested in a new report.
The entrance of Bartlett Hall Science Center is adorned with a bronze plaque that shows a man in a hood and cape holding a rifle with the hate organization’s title underneath. according to a report by the so-called Naming Commission released on Monday.
The commission is tasked with making recommendations on the renaming of Confederate monuments on military property. The report said it could not outright call for a removal of the KKK decoration because it is not specifically linked to the rebel army.
However, it noted that “there are clearly ties in the KKK to the Confederacy,” and called on the Department of Defense to “create a standard disposition requirement for such assets.”
After the Civil War, the white supremacist group fought against the progress of Reconstruction in the South by terrorizing and killing black people and other minorities. By the 1920s it had four million members and meaningful political power, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The commission did call for West Point to rename a dozen buildings, roads and gates named after General Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders, and found that portraits of Lee and “individuals who voluntarily served” under him should be tossed.
A role call that included names of graduates that fought for secession at Cullum Hall at the Orange County military academy “may remain as structured” due to its non-commemorative posture, the group said.
The changes would cost taxpayers about $425,000, with $300,000 alone needed to move monuments and engravings at Reconciliation Plaza.
West Point did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.
The commission also told the military to rename several assets at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
