Fort Bragg teen wins $2,000 for essay urging city to change its name

It was a but a single gripe in a 20-minute torrent of grievances, but it was there. Seven minutes into his speech at the Republican National Convention, Eric Trump criticized the “political elites” behind the changing of the name of Fort Bragg.

The son of Donald Trump was referring to the Fort Bragg in North Carolina, named after the Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, who owned slaves and lost key battles in the Civil War.

Renamed in 2023, to the chagrin of some conservatives, the base is now called Fort Liberty.

Meanwhile Fort Bragg, a city of 7,000 on the Mendocino County coast, has no plans to change its handle — despite being named for the same enslaver and traitor.

The absurdity of this situation was adroitly highlighted by Darwin Marroquin, a recent graduate of Fort Bragg High School.

Last month, Marroquin was named the winner of the second annual “Change Our Name” essay contest, which came with a $2,000 prize.

Fellow senior Abilene Kamstra won $1,000 for her second-place entry.

The contest is sponsored by Change Our Name, a group of Fort Bragg residents who “ no longer wish to memorialize a Confederate General, a traitor to our county, in this time of racial reckoning,” according to its website.

Read Darwin Maroquin’s winning essay here.

Marroquin had learned in a history class that his hometown was named for a Confederate general. But it wasn’t until last year’s essay contest, won by his friend Carmen Velazquez, that he gained a deeper understanding of who Bragg was, and why naming a city after him was so offensive to so many people.

While he considered entering last year’s contest, he decided not to, “because there was already so much on my plate.”

An uptick in donations to the nonprofit Change Our Name resulted in a doubling of the first prize in the essay contest from $1,000 to $2,000. “I decided to take a crack at it,” said Marroquin.

After “two or three days” working over spring break, he had a draft he liked.

While it’s clear that Fort Bragg residents “are divided on the topic of whether our town’s name should be changed,” he wrote, it must also “be clear that our town is named after a racist Confederate general.”

Marroquin gives credit where it’s due, noting that Bragg led U.S. Army forces to victory over Mexican forces in the Battle of Buena Vista. He then chronicles the disloyalty of Bragg, who then “received full command of over 10,000 troops of the Confederate Army that treacherously fought against the United States government and its ideals of liberty.”

He goes on to note that “history remembers [Bragg] as the worst Confederate general, a total loser,” citing as his source the digital encyclopedia American History Central.

Essay contestants were given a choice of two prompts, either: “The name of Fort Bragg High School should be changed,” or “The name of Fort Bragg High School should not be changed.”

As pointed out by Philip Zwerling, an author and retired professor of creative writing who chairs the board of Change Our Name, Fort Bragg High School and Fort Bragg Middle School are the only two public schools in California named for a Confederate general.

In the contest’s brief history, no one has opted to for the first, pro-Braxton Bragg prompt — probably, says Zwerling, because of how daunting a task it would be to write a cogent essay in favor of the status quo.

“As we seek to move into a more equal, inclusive, and loving environment,” wrote Marroquin, who is of Guatemalan heritage, “our town’s name must be changed to reflect that. Until that happens, it is imperative that we at the very least, change the name of our schools.”

Essays were graded on six categories, including grammar, focus and sequencing, support and conclusion, and citations and references.

In 2021, a Fort Bragg citizens’ commission devoted to exploring the possibility of a name change released a questionnaire to gauge public opinion.

The results showed that 57.4% of respondents opposed a name change, with 38.2% in favor and the rest undecided.

Zwerling points out that the filter on survey responses was “imprecise,” leaving open the possibility that at least some of those voting against the name change didn’t actually live in city limits.

Regardless, he says, he was “encouraged” by the survey results, which came in before Change Our Name had launched its concerted campaign — including the essay contest — to educate residents on who Bragg was, and why having the city named after him is offensive to so many of its residents.

Resigned to the fact that the city council is unlikely to ever vote on such a fraught, charged issue, Change Our Name in 2023 sought the intercession of the California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names — to no avail. As Zwerling noted, that committee has no jurisdiction over the names of incorporated communities.

To the Fort Bragg Forever people contending that a name change would erase the community’s history, Marroquin points out that history “is not going anywhere, and rather than losing that history we can enhance it by changing its name to something that represents us all as a whole.”

Marroquin will attend Mendocino College in the fall. From there, he intends to transfer to a private, 4-year college where he’ll study marketing management, and photography — his true passion. While he hasn’t spent the $2,000 yet, he’s expects to spend a big chunk of it on some new camera equipment.

He got some praise and support from classmates, friends and teachers after winning the contest. He got some pushback, too, although he preferred not to elaborate on that.

While he’s grateful to Change Our Name, Marroquin doesn’t see himself as a firebrand in support of its cause. He’s not trying to make anyone angry or uncomfortable, he said. He’s just entered an essay contest, and won it. The essay, he says, speaks for itself.

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @ausmurph88.