As part of the US military’s ongoing campaign to remove names that glorify the Confederacy, the Navy has renamed a battleship in honor of a black sailor and statesman who had been born into slavery.

The Confederate Civil War victory for which the guided missile destroyer USS Chancellorsville was named has been changed to Uss Robert Smalls, the Navy revealed in a news release on Monday.

Smalls, who was born in South Carolina in 1839, enlisted in the Confederate military and served on the steamship Planter in Charleston during the Civil War. With his family, additional slaves, and war supplies aboard, Smalls navigated the ship out of Charleston Harbor on May 13, 1862, handing it over to the US Navy. In the end, he progressed to captain of the Planter.

Smalls spearheaded one of the first widespread boycotts of segregated transportation as an advocate for African Americans. During the Civil War, Smalls was elected to the South Carolina Legislature and made a brigadier general of the state militia. He then served in the US House of Representatives for five terms.

Naval Secretary Carlos Del Toro said in a statement that “Robert Smalls is a guy who merits a namesake ship, and with this renaming, his narrative will continue to be repeated and recognized.” The renaming of these assets, according to the statement, “is not about rewriting history, but rather to take the attention off of the aspects of our history that don’t correspond with the ideals of this country and instead allows us to emphasize the events and people in history that may have been forgotten.”

The USS Robert Smalls is a member of Carrier Strike Group 5 and is presently stationed in Yokosuka, Japan.

The Name Commission, which Congress mandated as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, investigated the names of more than 750 bases, facilities, buildings, and other structures to see if they paid homage to the Confederacy before deciding to rename the ship.

The commission also advised the Navy to change the names of two ships, the USS Chancellorsville and the USNS Maury, in addition to advising the military to rename nine outposts, including important establishments like Fort Bragg and Fort Hood. The latter was given that name in honor of Captain Matthew Fontaine Maury, who left the US Navy to join the Confederate Army.

The Navy stated that the renaming process will move forward with “little impact” on crew and operations.

The post Navy Renames Warship after Black sailor, statesman appeared first on US Crime online.