If not for a new report, no one would have known about a bronze KKK plaque hanging at West Point

If not for a new report recently handed over to a congressional panel, no one would have paid any attention to a bronze plaque of a traditionally clad Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member hanging above a doorway at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York.

The report was released by the Naming Commission, established by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 and created after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. The commission is tasked with making recommendations to Congress and the Department of Defense on naming, renaming, or removing “items that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.”

According to The New York Times, the KKK plaque has hung above the doorway to the Bartlett Hall Science Center for decades. As cited in the report, the plaque falls outside of the scope of the commission’s power because while the KKK was founded by former Confederate soldiers, the group did not fully materialize until after the Civil War.