The Tennessee Capitol Commission voted 9-2 Thursday to recommend transferring a prominent bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest to the Tennessee State Museum. The final decision will be made by the Tennessee Historical Commission, likely in October.
Appearing before the commission Thursday morning, Gov. Bill Lee said that after careful consideration of the matter in light of new debates around the statue and the "pain" it causes the state's Black legislators, he now believes it shouldn't remain exalted in the seat of state government.
"The scripture says we should admonish one another and do all that we can to live peacefully, with the bond of peace, and to live together in unity," Gov. Lee said. "And I think our nation is on a path, as it has been in the beginning, to become a more perfect union."
Previously, Gov. Lee said the statue should remain in the capitol building, but with improved context. As advocates for removal have pointed out, the statue was placed in 1978 by the Sons of the Confederacy. Forrest's incentive to fight in the Civil War was directly related to slavery -- he sold thousands of men, women and childen in a market in Memphis. He is credited with slaughtering a garrison of Black soldiers at Fort Pillow after they had surrendered. Finally, he is the founding figurehead of the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremicist organization that terrorized and murdered thousands of Black people long after the war.
This problematic history has raised questions for decades about why Forrest has been aggrandized by state governments all across the South, but especially in Tennessee.
Comptroller Justin Wilson suggested that the statue's original intent was to celebrate Tennessee's military history. "We are the Volunteer State," he said. Two other military figures are on display, Union Admiral David Farragut from East Tennessee, and U.S. Admiral Albert Gleaves who fought in Spanish-American War.
Wilson introduced an amendment to recommend transferring all three and replacing them with busts of politicians. The military busts are already the property of the Tennessee State Museum. The question now is whether the Tennessee Historical Commission will view the removal of all three as a correction that goes too far. Some commissioners feared the amendment could cause further delays.
"Teaching history and displaying a bust are not one in the same," said Secretary of State Tre Hargett, who agreed to the amendment. He added that if alcoves become available in the capitol building, he wishes to see women added to the historical tributes.
