by Rod Williams - The Tennessee Historical Commission has voted to remove the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from the Tennessee Stat Capitol and I don't care much one way or the other. If I had a vote and was convinced that this bust was deeply offensive to our Black brethren, I wouldn't block its removal. This however is something that I do not get worked up a lot over either way. The history of Nathan Bedford Forrest is mixed. Some say he was a racist through and through responsible for the Fort Pillow massacre and was a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He also, however, ordered the Klan dissolved and spoke in favor of racial harmony and was undeniably a brave and talented cavalry officer.
During the BLM/Antifa rebellion and riots of the summer we saw a large number of statures and monuments toppled or vandalized. The people doing the destruction were kind of indiscriminate and toppled any classical looking statures. Even statues of those who had nothing to do with the civil war or slavery and some who were even pro-emancipation were toppled. Also in the woke spirit of the times, some places stripped the name of American founders such as Washington, Jefferson and Madison off of street signs, school buildings and place names because they had once been slave owners.
While I don't feel strongly about the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, I do approve of the methodical deliberative manner with which the decision was made. It was not a rushed decision reached in response to an iconoclastic frenzy.
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