[Walvoord]

Not many people know this, but Forest became a devoted Christian before his death. A preacher in Memphis tried for many years to convert Forest. Forest always refused. Finally one day on a Memphis street, the preacher said, “General, are you ready to meet the Lord?” Forest stopped, swung round, and said, “Yes preacher. I'm ready.” The preacher took him aside and talked to Forest. He was soon baptized. After that, Forest was a changed man. He wrote letters to every person he had ever affronted and apologized. He used his money to open a school for Black children. He would leave anonymous gifts of shoes, food, and blankets on the doorsteps of black peoples shacks. When he died, many Black people attended his wake and funeral. An amazing turn around for a man who once bought and sold slaves, the Fort Pillow tragedy, and the formation of the Klan.

[john in springfield]

"Now, when I was a baby, Momma named me after the great Civil War hero, General Nathan Bedford Forrest. She said we was related to him in some way.

And, what he did was, he started up this club called the Ku Klux Klan. They'd all dress up in their robes and their bedsheets and act like a bunch of ghosts or spooks or something. They'd even put bedsheets on their horses and ride around.

And anyway, that's how I got my name, Forrest Gump. Momma said that the Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense."