Wharton: Move Forrest statue, remains
Call joins national debate on Confederate symbol displays
Memphis Mayor A C Wharton said Thursday that a statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest at Health Sciences Park is a relic to a “despicable” period of U.S. history, and that his office would work with the City Council to have both it and Forrest’s remains moved to Elmwood Cemetery.
Wharton said historical monuments of this kind should be in a museum or elsewhere — not on Union Avenue or in a park, where people couldn’t easily avoid the markers.
“Which AfricanAmerican wants to have a picnic in the shadow of Nathan Bedford Forrest?” he said, his brow furrowed.
Wharton said the issue has come up again because of the national discussion about the public display of Confederate
symbols in the wake of a racially motivated church shooting in South Carolina that left nine black people dead.
Asked about a statue of Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis at another city park, Wharton said his opposition to the Forrest memorials wasn’t based on Forrest’s Civil War war record so much as his postwar association with the Ku Klux Klan.
Wharton said cost wasn’t an issue, and that “lots of people” in the city would contribute money to have the statue and remains moved.
Health Sciences Park was called Forrest Park until the City Council voted in February 2013 to change the name. It also changed the names of Confederate Park and Jefferson Davis Park.
City Council chairman Myron Lowery supports the move.
“I think it’s a symbol of bigotry, a symbol of hate and a reminder of the Ku Klux Klan, which Forrest was instrumental in organizing, and I think it has no place in this day and time to prompt bigotry and hate,” Lowery said.
“I’m not trying to change history; history is what it is. But in 2015, this day and age is much different than it was 100 years ago.”
Lowery cited a 2013 opinion from City Council attorney Allan Wade in saying he believes the council has the authority to make the move.
Said Lowery, who has been on the council since 1991 and is not seeking re-election in October: “One hundred years ago, I would not be able to sit in the position that I currently have or be able to say these things without being lynched. And I think a majority of people in this city and nation agree that history is history, but it should not be glorified.”
Wade’s 2013 opinion said the council had the right to rename the park and remove the statue. However, that same year, the state legislature passed the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which prohibits communities from removing war-related statues from public places.
“If they wanted to take action in moving the statue, it would have to be approved by the state historical commission,” Wade said.
Moving the remains of Forrest and his wife would require the approval of the Forrest family and would need to be approved by Chancery Court, Wade said.
The Forrest family won’t agree to any changes at the park, Lee Millar, local spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said in an interview.
He has spoken to the family and said they would not agree to an interview.
Millar said the renewed discussion about removing the statue and the graves is “unfortunate” and is a waste of time and money.
“It’s another silly reaction that is unnecessary,” he said. “Why bring this up? The Civil War was 150 years ago. The statue and Forrest Park have been there for over 100 years. Aren’t these guys over it yet? Let’s worry about today’s problems, high crime, high taxes, low education. It just seems to me misguided priorities.”
Before Wharton’s news conference, Millar tried to enter the conference room in the mayor’s City Hall office, only to be turned away because the event was for “media only.”
Millar disputed that Forrest founded the KKK, and praised him as a civic leader and “friend to the blacks” who deserves to be honored and remembered by his city.