The statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest was voted to be removed from the State Capitol building after months of debate. The Tennessee Historical Commission finally announced that the statue of the confederate general and one of the earliest KKK leaders will be removed from the State Capitol.
Nathan Bedford Forrest was the first KKK Grand Wizard who led the confederate troops to Fort Pillow following a massacre that left almost 300 union soldiers dead. 200 soldiers among them were Black. He is known as one of the most racist historical figures.
There have been various attempts in the past to remove the statue but they never saw the light of the day. The movement to remove Forrest’s statue from the Capitol building gained momentum over the summer after the Black Lives Matter protests spread widely across the country following George Floyd’s death.
The Tennessee Historical Commission voted 25-1 for the relocation of Forrest’s bust to the Tennessee State Museum. Republican Gov. Bill Lee supported this move. He claimed that Forrest is known as a leader who inflicted pain, brutal crimes, and sufferings on the African Americans. The pain is very real for the fellow Tennesseans and it gets doubled whenever they walk in the halls of the Statehouse. The bust needs to be removed as it is a bitter remembrance of the massacre by him.
The new location of Forrest’s statue is still undecided. Some leaders are trying to halt the statue’s removal by arguing that it can’t be done without following proper procedure. Lt. Gov Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton both have requested the Attorney General of Tennessee to issue a statement regarding the commission’s vote to move the statute.
Herbert Slatery III, the Attorney General of Tennessee is also authorized to determine the new location of the statue. However, McNally has suggested that the statue should remain in the building as it adds a different angle to American history altogether. He also claimed that the left-wing activists, who are pushing an anti-American and anti-history agenda across the country, are responsible for this act. They will not stop here and will find other means to engrave their agenda of anti-American history.
