In 1978, a bust of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was added to the Tennessee State Capitol right outside the House of Representatives. When the bust was first protested in 1979, two crosses were burned in Nashville. In 2015 (Charleston 9) and 2017 (Unite the Right Rally) Governor Haslam called for the removal of this bust, but the Capitol Commission rejected the proposal. 

After that history lesson, it is important to detail why Nathan Bedford Forrest should no longer be honored by our state government. Nathan Bedford Forrest is a symbol of hatred and racially-motivated violence that has no place being honored in our state. 

1. Forrest was the first grand wizard of the KKK, one of the most hateful and horrible organizations in our country's history, and is rumored to have even help found it. He expanded membership and embarked on an intimidation campaign in the late 1860s using violence to silence activists. I cannot believe that in 2020, I have to explain why we should not honor a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard.

2. Forrest was also a Confederate general and led the Fort Pillow Massacre. African American troops were stationed at Fort Pillow and Forrest ordered his troops to continue to fight after the Union troops had surrendered. Somewhere between 277 and 295 Union troops were massacred. 

3. Before the Civil War, Forrest made his money by, you guessed it, planting cotton and trading slaves. 

When I emailed Bill Lee's office about this issue, they responded by saying we should not ignore history when we are not proud of it, and the capitol building is a place to learn about history. While I completely agree we should never ignore history, a bust in front of the House of Representatives is a place of honor. A place of respect. That is why this bust belongs in a museum about Tennessee history, detailing extensively his history that we are not proud of as a state. Simply saying his name and his birth and death date is not showing Tennessee that this is something they regret.

They continued to say in that email that Governor Lee has pledged to be a governor for all Tennesseans. Honoring racism is not being a governor for all Tennesseans, and based on the email, they understand that Forrest is not something we are proud of, so it is time to take action. Removing him would not only be a symbol of solidarity and empathy for black Tennesseeans but a symbol to the rest of the country that we as a state will no longer put racism in a place of honor.