[American Thinker] President Trump can rename the aircraft carrier USS John Stennis, which honors a 20th-century racist. He was a mere politician who never served in the armed forces.
Stennis was a zealous supporter of racial segregation. He signed the Southern Manifesto, which called for resistance to the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. He also voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Name it after a genuine Navy hero whose name ought to be a household term: Robert Smalls.
Robert Smalls was born into slavery. He worked as a pilot in the harbor at Charleston when the Civil War started. Smalls was assigned to steer the CSS Planter, an armed Confederate military transport. He stole the boat while the boat's officers were asleep, and then he successfully sailed past Confederate forts that guarded the port. Later, Smalls was sent to see President Lincoln by the Union commander at Port Royal who was impressed with his skills. Smalls was given command of his old vessel, making him the first black naval captain of the war. As a slave he had planted mines, and he was now working to destroy railroad bridges. |