Memphis to remove Confederate remains

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s polarizing presence has hung over Memphis since he moved here in 1852 — his legacy cemented by a giant statue that loomed over all who passed his gravesite in a popular park.

Defenders considered him a hero for his Civil War exploits.

Detractors called him a violent racist and noted his early leadership role in the Ku Klux Klan.

Now the former slave trader’s remains are set to be moved to a new Confederate museum in Columbia, Tenn. — another milestone in the effort to remove statues, monuments and now the remains of Confederate leaders from public spaces.

As workers prepared to dig up his grave earlier this month, a white man waved a rebel flag, sang “Dixie” and launched an expletive-laced tirade at Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer.

Sawyer, who is Black, plucked Confederate flags off a chain-link fence surrounding the site as George Johnson paced behind her on a concrete platform.

When he cursed at her again, Sawyer replied: “It’s not your property,” and turned toward reporters gathered for the news conference.

Health Sciences Park, where Forrest and his wife had been buried for more than a century, was called Forrest Park until 2013, when the name was changed. The statue of the general on horseback was removed in 2017, after a campaign Sawyer helped lead.

Now, the Sons of Confederate Veterans have agreed to transport his remains to their National Confederate Museum at the historic Elm Springs estate in Columbia, 200 miles away.

The group’s spokesman, Lee Millar, a distant cousin of Forrest, said the bodies of Forrest and his wife were in an undisclosed location until they can be moved to the museum.

“Memphis is not the town that Forrest grew up in,” he said. “It’s just deleting his history and forgetting about the past.”

Gradually, Forrest’s legacy has been dismantled in Memphis.

Forrest traded slaves near the area where people of many races now come to eat, drink and watch ball games downtown. Just a short drive away is the old Lorraine Motel, where civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Many in majority-Black Memphis are eager to see Forrest gone. The park where his grave was located has been the site of protests related to the Black Lives Matter movement. A music festival for Juneteenth, which marks the end of American slavery, was held there last weekend.

“It’s like a burden has been lifted,” said Van Turner, a Black county commissioner who pushed for the Forrest statue removal. “It just gives us breath.”

Elsewhere in Tennessee, activists and Democratic lawmakers have called for the removal of a bust of Forrest from the state Capitol in Nashville. At Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s recommendation, the Tennessee Historical Commission voted to take down the bust, but GOP legislators argued another commission’s vote is needed. No removal plans have been announced.

After amassing wealth in Memphis, Forrest joined the rebel cause. Wounded four times, he led lightning raids on supply lines and commanded troops at Shiloh, Chickamauga and other Civil War battles.