Naval Academy renames Maury Hall for President Jimmy Carter in effort to remove Confederate symbols

The U.S. Naval Academy renamed its engineering building Friday after Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. president and a 1946 academy graduate.

Formerly named Maury Hall for Matthew Fontaine Maury, an American oceanographer and naval officer who joined the Confederacy during the Civil War, the hall was one of two buildings and a street on The Yard recommended last year to be renamed by a federal task force. The naming commission was formed by the National Defense Authorization Act and was given three years to examine Confederate symbols on military installations.

According to its final report, submitted to Congress in August, the task force recommended that Maury Hall, and Buchanan House and Buchanan Road, named after Franklin Buchanan, the first superintendent of the academy, be renamed. The academy has not yet announced when Buchanan House and Buchanan Road will be changed.

[ Naval Academy should change names of buildings and street named after Confederate sailors, federal task force says ]

“I’m glad that we can gather together to share this historic day,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said during the renaming ceremony. “There was a memo sent out to leadership from [Defense] Secretary [Lloyd J.] Austin telling us how to rename the buildings. He said, and I quote, ‘Give them proud new names, names that echoed with honor and patriotism, history, names that will inspire generations of service members to defend our constitution,’ and today on the Friday before Presidents Day that’s exactly what we are doing.”

Carter has deep ties to the Naval Academy and is the only academy graduate to become president. Those accomplishments alone would have been enough to be worthy of having a hall named after him, but Carter still “did so much more,” said retired Rear Adm. Samuel J. Cox, the director of naval history and curator for the Navy.

“By naming this building in his honor, we not only recognize his great contributions but ensure that his legacy will forever inspire our nation’s future leaders,” said Vice Adm. Sean Buck, superintendent of the Naval Academy. “For generations to come, when midshipmen walk the corridors of Carter Hall, I have no doubt that they will be reminded of President Carter’s example and his legacy of lifelong service, and reinvigorated with the call to serve we all answered when we took our first oath.”

Carter, 98, the oldest living former president, did not attend the renaming, but members of his family, including his granddaughter Sarah Carter, did.

“This is great. The Naval Academy means everything to my grandpa,” Sarah Carter said. “It’s really nice for him to be honored this way. I’m just so proud of him and so glad that I could be here to experience it for him.”

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Carter was born in 1924 and grew up in Georgia. He entered the Naval Academy in the Class of 1947 but graduated a year early to support the fleet following World War II. He spent the next seven years as a submarine officer.

In 1962, he returned to Georgia after his father died. He entered state politics, serving one term in the legislature before being elected governor in 1970. In that capacity, he was a proponent for human rights, specifically regarding racial barriers, helping expand the number of Black state employees.

Carter announced his candidacy for president in late 1974 and became the front-runner in the Democratic primary after winning the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. He narrowly defeated Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 general election. During Carter’s tenure as president, he continued his efforts regarding equal rights for all, promoted economic and social development, and later received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on solutions to international conflicts.

After losing his bid for reelection to Republican Ronald Reagan, Carter spent the ensuing decades promoting diplomacy around the world and founded a human rights nonprofit, the Carter Center.

Maury Hall was built and named in the early 1900s.

Maury served in the U.S. Navy more than 30 years before the Civil War started and was one of the nation’s first oceanographers and climatologists. Maury didn’t view Black people as deserving of equal rights under the law, according to the commission report. These views led him to join the Confederacy, lobby European nations to recognize the Confederate States of America and help build the Confederate Navy.

The name changes are estimated to cost $12,000 for each building and $3,000 for the road, based on information provided by the U.S. Navy, according to the committee report.