Confederate names are being scrubbed from US military bases. The list of ideas to replace them is 30,000 deep.

WASHINGTON – For decades, the Pentagon has venerated Confederate officers who betrayed their oaths and waged war against their country to uphold slavery by placing their names on property from military bases to ships. 

The effort to scrub the Confederacy's legacy from bases, streets, barracks, gyms and ships gained momentum during the racial justice movement that sprung from the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. It survived a veto from then-President Donald Trump, who wanted to retain the honors in the name of "history."

Federal law, enacted Jan. 1 after Congress overrode Trump's veto, now requires that change by 2024.

A federal commission, led by retired Adm. Michelle Howard, has been surveying the military's vast holdings to determine the scope of change needed. It's likely that hundreds of names of those who voluntarily served the Confederacy attached to bases, streets and other facilities will be changed. Commissioners have held public meetings and solicited recommendations for new honorees – and nearly 30,000 suggestions have poured in.

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