They can't see the Forrest for the trees. Tennessee lawmakers. A Confederate general. (Page 5/12)
sourmash MAR 24, 02:27 PM
No. He must be canceled. It's the mob's rules.
rinselberg MAR 24, 08:17 PM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:

Summary...

Democrats did some racist bad things back in the day.
Democrats are embarrassed about their history and try to eliminate it.
Republicans are somehow evil and racist ???


"Hardly."

Nashville's Fox News affiliated radio and TV station just published a new report about this online.

"Republican lawmakers want to change the rules on removing historical monuments in TN"
Kathleen Serie for FOX17-WZTV Nashville; March 17, 2021.
https://fox17.com/news/loca...numents-in-tennessee

It's not a long report. I won't say brief, either. It "Read-o-Meters" to just under 4 minutes.

I think it would take a "Houdini" (as distinct from a "Hudini") to square that "summary" (from the forum's jersey number "82") with this new report from FOX17 Nashville.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-25-2021).]

rinselberg MAR 25, 01:45 PM
I can't remember the time (or the last time) that I was in Tennessee. It's part of my early childhood that I hardly remember. Nevertheless, I kind of "dig" these headlines that I'm finding from the Volunteer State. These are all from the last 24 hours.

A bill that would have eliminated Nathan Bedford Forrest Day (July 13) from the calendar of Tennessee state holidays failed on a voice vote in committee and so will not advance to a full up or down vote in the state legislature. The bill, sponsored by a Democratic state representative, went down by a vote of 10 No and 4 Yes. On the "Yes" side, 3 Democrats and a lone Republican. The 10 "No" votes were all Republicans.

A resolution to designate the Christian Bible as the "Official State Book" has been revived and is before a committee.

The Tennessee Constitution describes the jobs that are available to inmates of the state's prisons and correctional facilities as "slavery and involuntary servitude" imposed as punishment. A committee is taking up a bill to change that description from "slavery and involuntary servitude" to "working."



A member of the State Historical Commission explains why he voted to relocate a bronze of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Capitol Building to the nearby State Museum.

I'm hoping that someone will set up a website with a webcam trained on the bronze of NBF in the Capitol Building so that First Movement of the bronze can be a nationwide event. "Nathan Bedford Forrest Watch."

Thank you for allowing "Nashville Hot" into your desktop, tablet, smartphone or other Internet-enabled device.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-25-2021).]

rinselberg MAR 26, 01:39 PM
I’m a history buff of little renown
But it's time for this general to move crosstown

Sometimes deForrest’ation is a good thing.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-27-2021).]

rinselberg MAR 27, 01:47 PM
It wasn’t the night before Christmas
but in the Tennessee House
A creature was stirring who wasn’t a mouse.
Words came from his mouth in the form of a speech
And what did they hear, but a cry to Impeach!


GOP lawmaker levels "impeachment threat" [at Tennessee's Republican Governor]

quote
Rep. John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) and Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) have introduced legislation to reconstitute the Tennessee Historical Commission to give the General Assembly control over eight of its 12 members. The panel, which last week OK’d moving the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust to the State Museum, is currently appointed by the governor.

Ragan has also had an amendment drafted declaring:
Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the statues currently on the second floor of the state capitol must never be altered, removed, concealed, or obscured in any fashion without approval in accordance with this section and must be preserved and protected for all time as a tribute to the bravery and heroism of the citizens of this state who suffered and died in their cause.

If an elected official were to go ahead and do it anyway, “the violation is an impeachable offense and grounds for ouster,” according to the amendment. Public officials would also be personally liable for damages, penalties, and fines.


The article (that's almost half of it) continues online and is followed by a long string of debate-like comments from readers.

Erik Schelzig for the Tennessee Journal "On the Hill"; March 15, 2021.
https://onthehill.tnjournal...t-over-bust-removal/


The latest from "Nashville Hot."

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-29-2021).]

rinselberg MAR 29, 11:57 AM
This is the best "read" of all of the articles that I have encountered about the history of the NBF bust--or "bronze" as I like to call it. It's the most comprehensive of the various reports that I've seen. It's encyclopedic. It could be described as "The Nathan Bedford Forrest bronze from A to Z." Or "The complete and unabridged history of the Nathan Bedford Forrest bronze." It's that good.

"Nathan Bedford Forrest bust removal receives final approval from Tennessee Historical Commission"
Natalie Allison for the Nashville Tennessean; March 9, 2021.
https://www.tennessean.com/...-capitol/6764751002/


"Connor Towne O'Neill on Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Lost Cause & the Big Lie"
39 minutes of audio content (podcast.) Posted March 29, 2021 on Acast.

quote
Long before the Big Lie there was the Lost Cause, one of the most pervasive and damaging "stories" in American history. Connor Towne O'Neill is the author of "Down Along with That Devil's Bones" a book that examines the Lost Cause through the lens of Nathan Bedford Forrest statues. He is also a producer of critically-acclaimed podcast "White Lies." He joins the Reckon Interview to discuss Forrest, the Lost Cause and the parallels we see today with the Big Lie being pushed about the 2020 election.

https://play.acast.com/s/re...elostcause-thebiglie


quote
Conner Towne O'Neill wrote the non-fiction book Down Along With The Devil's Bones: A Reckoning With Monuments, Memory, And The Legacy Of White Supremacy. O'Neill, a man born in a northern state who went to school at the University of Alabama, was unaware of Nathan Bedford Forrest when he first moved to Alabama. In this book he recounts the biography of Forrest along with the attempts in four southern cities to remove the statues of Forrest. Forrest was a cotton farmer in Tennessee who made his fortune by selling slaves. Later he was a general in the Confederate Army. Later still he was elected to be the first Wizard in the Klu Klux Klan. According to the author, statues of Forrest were installed at times of racial tension. When a black man is elected mayor of a town, the townspeople respond to their discomfort by erecting a bronze statue of Forrest. The author talks about palliatives. Palliatives are medical care or medicine that don't change the progression of a disease but do provide pain relief. He says the statues of Forrest were installed to ease the discomfort of positive racial changes in society. The book details the struggles to remove statues of Forrest in four southern cities. Not all the campaigns to remove the statue were successful. Reading the book taught me more about the history of the inaccurate notion of white supremacy.

"Orange is my favorite color" blog; November 29, 2020.
http://orange-sue.blogspot....th-devils-bones.html

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-29-2021).]

rinselberg MAR 30, 04:01 PM
The "hits" just keep on coming.

I always associated THC with tetrahydrocannabinol, the most psychotropic chemical compound delivered to the human body when a person smokes or ingests marijuana. It's the "high" in marijuana.

But here's a newspaper columnist ruminating over the THC or Tennessee Historical Commission, which recently voted 25-1 in favor of relocating three bronzes, including a bronze of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, from the Tennessee State Capitol building to the nearby Tennessee State Museum. She's reacting to Republican-led efforts in the state legislature to revisit that recommendation with a new and smaller commission that would give the Republican majority in the state legislature a larger hand in the appointment of commission members.

That's a "hit." Literally. Well, not literally. Quasi-literally.

She's calling this "Bustgate." As it's a bust (or three busts) that in the eye of this hurricane, (I prefer to say "bronze" instead of "bust.")

"Sense of Place: Think twice before changing THC"
Linda Caldwell for the Advocate & Democrat; March 30, 2021.
https://www.advocateanddemo...0e-87bc2cf9dcd0.html

Meanwhile, in Asheville (TN), which is almost 300 highway miles east of Nashville, a judge's ruling has just moved another Confederate monument one step closer to being demolished. It's a 75-foot tall granite obelisk in Asheville's Pack Square Plaza that's dedicated to the memory of Confederate governor Zebulon Vance.

"Judge denies motion to block removal of Asheville monument"
AP (Associated Press); March 30, 2021.
https://apnews.com/article/...46916ddfd2d00979699c

I'd like to see the NBF bronze moved to the museum soon. But if it takes a long time before it's moved, I may be able to look back upon this thread as part of my "Victory Over Nathan Bedford Forrest Day" celebration. I guess a libation of Tennessee whiskey from Jack Daniels or George Dickel (a brand I've also enjoyed) would be apropos.

The other possibility--that the NBF bronze remains on display indefinitely in the State Capitol building--I'm not even thinking about it.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 03-30-2021).]

rinselberg APR 11, 01:01 PM
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A couple of updates here from the front lines of my personal encounter with this famous and infamous Confederate General.

"The Nathan Bedford Forrest Equestrian Statue in Nashville . . . Like its subject, [it's] a monstrosity with an ugly past."
Tarpley Hitt for the Daily Beast; June 12, 2020.
https://www.thedailybeast.c...atue-ever?ref=scroll

This is an awesome "read." Here's how it starts:

quote
Nestled on a private grass verge along Interstate-65, just south of Nashville, there’s a 25-foot Confederate tribute, which someone generous might call a statue and others might call so transcendently stupid and ugly it disproves white supremacy. It is both silver and gold and topped with a layer of pink paint. The figure resembles an extra-large novelty nutcracker frozen in carbonite, mouth open Han Solo-style, perched on a horse and left to leer at passing DHL trucks into eternity. It is called the "Nathan Bedford Forrest Equestrian Statue."

Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general, slave trader, and unambiguous war criminal, numbers among the most violent and hateful losers of the Civil War. If Robert E. Lee represented the pseudo-stately face of the slave-owning South, Forrest was its shrieking id, a guy The New York Times described in his obituary as “guerrilla-like in his methods of warfare... notoriously bloodthirsty and revengeful.”

Forrest massacred dozens of black Union soldiers after surrounding Fort Pillow near Memphis in 1864, became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in 1867, and was rewarded with monuments across the state of Tennessee for decades after.

There is a bust of his head sitting in the State Capitol building—one which protesters have called to remove, and Republicans are now rallying to protect.

A statue of Forrest stood in Memphis from 1904 until 2017, when it was sold to a private buyer for $1,000. Last year, Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee declared July 13th “Nathan Bedford Forrest Day,” a gesture so controversial that even Ted Cruz condemned it. But of all the tributes to Forrest, few capture the hideousness of his legacy quite like the fiberglass monstrosity looming over I-65. . .


Now segue to Rutherford County (TN) historian Greg Tucker, who recounts the story of how Nathan Bedford Forrest adopted a conspicuously conciliatory attitude towards blacks in the years following the Civil War.

"[Nathan Bedford] Forrest was postwar activist for black civil rights"
Greg Tucker for Daily News Journal; July 11, 2015.
https://www.dnj.com/story/n...vil-rights/29995493/

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 04-11-2021).]

williegoat APR 11, 02:06 PM
So, does Mr. Tucker's article alter, or at least broaden your perspective on the issue?
rinselberg APR 11, 02:43 PM
Before this all started for me--and that's recounted in the very first post of this thread--the only things I knew about Nathan Bedford Forrest or "NBF" was that he was a Confederate general, and his being associated with and widely reported as responsible for a notorious massacre of black Union soldiers (a "war crime") and his role in the creation of the original Ku Klux Klan or "KKK 1.0."

I like the fact--it seems to be well documented--that NBF could fairly be described as having become a black civil rights activist in the years following the Civil War.

It doesn't change my mind about the recommendations of the Tennessee Historical Commission, that the bronzes of the various military figures would best be relocated from the Tennessee State Capitol Building to the nearby Tennessee State Museum. The bronze of NBF, and the celebrated Union Navy admiral David Farragut and that other U.S. Navy Admiral who belongs to the period after the Civil War but has a bronze because he was born in Nashville.

I think it makes sense. Because no matter the "up side" of NBF in the years after the Civil War, he is first and foremost a symbol of Slavery and the Confederacy. And the KKK.

HIs visage in bronze should not be looking down on Tennessee state legislators and other visitors to the Capitol Building from such a prominent perch.

It's a circumstance that needs to be rectified.

REMOVE THAT BUST. REMOVE THAT BUST. REMOVE THAT . . .

They need to call "Bust Busters."

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 04-11-2021).]