For decades, a bust in Tennessee’s Capitol memorialized a slave trader, Confederate general, and founding member of the Ku Klux Klan.
But on Friday, the statue honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest was removed (watch above). Protesters sang “We Shall Overcome” and “Three Blind Mice” as workers hauled it away.
The bust of Confederate Gen. and KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest is off its pedestal and being wheeled out of the Tennessee Capitol. pic.twitter.com/dgAg4isvxw
— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) July 23, 2021
Tennessee officials removed the bust of Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest from the State Capitol.
It will be moved into the Tennessee State Museum. pic.twitter.com/JEUUon4WnJ
— The Recount (@therecount) July 23, 2021
The Tennessean reports from the scene:
“This is a momentous day in the city of Nashville,” said the Rev. Venita Lewis, a longtime activist who was part of the two-month People’s Plaza sit-in last summer outside the Capitol.
“Hang him!” she shouted, as Forrest’s bust was lifted onto the truck.
The disdain for Forrest isn’t some form of revisionist history prompted by cancel culture; the man was loathed in his time. He made a fortune as a slave trader and planation owner. As a Confederate general, he presided over a massacre at Fort Pillow. Nearly 300 Black Union troops – including many that were attempting to surrender – were killed by soldiers in his command. “Remember Fort Pillow!” became a rallying cry for Black Union soldiers.
After the Civil War, Forrest became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The racist group waged a war of terror and violence against Southern Blacks.
“From the Fort Pillow massacre to roving lynch mobs, from Jim Crow to the assassination of MLK, Jr., it’s time for us, as one people, to heal the wounds of the past,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Black lawmaker from Memphis who chairs the Senate’s Democratic caucus.
I say this as a Tennessean and a historian — nothing insults the state more than saying we can’t find anyone better than Nathan Bedford Forrest. https://t.co/IYCxI5ztUi
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 23, 2021
The bust was first installed in 1978. Calls for its removal have been steady since the 2015 Charleston, South Carolina mass shooting, which was motivated by racial hatred. News5Nashville explains:
The protests hit a fever pitch again in June 2020 after George Floyd’s death. On July 9, 2020, the State Capitol Commission voted 9-2 to have the bust removed, along with the busts of along with busts of Admiral David Farragut and Admiral Albert Gleaves.
The Forrest bust was transported to a history museum. It will be on display starting Tuesday.