Fort Bragg drops Confederate namesake as part of US army base rebranding

An honour guard displays the colours of Fort Bragg as a part of the renaming ceremony (Karl B DeBlaker/AP)

Fort Bragg has shed its Confederate namesake to become Fort Liberty in a ceremony some veterans said was a small but important step in making the US army more welcoming to current and prospective black service members.

The change was part of a broad Department of Defence initiative, motivated by the 2020 George Floyd protests, to rename military installations that had been named after Confederate soldiers.