REWRITE HISTORY: Rename Civil War parks? It's time, says Bailey (MEMPHIS)

The Commercial Appeal ^ | 11/17/02 | Blake Fontenay

[GailA]

Rename Civil War parks? It's time, says Bailey

By Blake Fontenay fontenay@gomemphis.com November 17, 2002

Many Memphians viewed last summer's heavyweight championship fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson as one of the city's crowning moments.

But for County Commission chairman Walter Bailey, the event also highlighted a major civic embarrassment.

Bailey said Lewis's attorney and some HBO officials were driving through downtown and spotted a monument dedicated to Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

"They thought that was a bit unbecoming," Bailey recalled. "That was sort of an awakening call."

That uncomfortable experience has prompted Bailey to begin some informal discussions about changing the names of three city parks dedicated to the Civil War: Confederate Park, where the Davis monument is located, nearby Jefferson Davis Park and Forrest Park in the medical center area.

So far, Bailey said he's met only with a few city leaders to gauge support for the potentially controversial idea.

Bailey said a public discussion of park renaming is probably premature, so he talked about it only reluctantly.

But he said the goal would be to remove some symbols of an era many Memphians would rather forget.

"Changes would be consistent with our efforts to become a world-class city," Bailey said. "These monuments are offensive to some people."

Many disagree with that view. In 1999, talk about removing the Civil War memorials from Confederate Park and converting it into a park for cancer survivors generated furious backlash from descendants of Confederate veterans and other Civil War history buffs.

The idea, proposed by former Park Commission chairman John Malmo, was eventually withdrawn.

Lee Millar, community affairs officer for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, predicted a similar outcry if Bailey and his friends move forward with a renaming proposal.

"I think their idea is absolutely ridiculous," Millar said. "Historians in the area and Southerners in the area will fight it bitterly."

Rather than get rid of Civil War historic sites, Millar said, the community should do more to promote them to tourists.

Millar said Civil War tourism is a lucrative industry in other states, particularly Virginia.

"What is Memphis doing to attract Civil War tourism? Nothing," said Millar, who is also president of the Forrest Historical Society. "People like learning about their history and their genealogy. We have 10 Civil War sites in Memphis, but most people can't name them because we don't promote them."

Those sites include the graves of several Civil War generals at Elmwood Cemetery, a downtown alley used by Union Gen. C. C. Washburn to escape from Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest in 1864, the Hunt-Phelan Home and Fort Pickering, Millar said.

Jefferson Davis Park was founded in 1930, and Forrest Park, burial site of the general and his wife, was founded in 1900. Although city records show a park was founded at the Confederate Park site in 1829, the property was completed as a Civil War memorial in 1908.

Sidney Chism, a local political activist and one of Bailey's confidants, said one of his big concerns is the renaming issue's potential for divisiveness.

"We've reached a crossroads where there's not as much tension between the races any more," Chism said. "I don't want to go back to that."

Chism said he and Bailey made plans to drum up support for the idea among City Council members. So far, though, Chism said, the reception hasn't been too good.

"I've talked to one or two legislators, and they've asked me not to get them involved," Chism said. "They were lukewarm to it. There were other items they thought were more important."

Mayor Willie Herenton, City Council chairman Rickey Peete and John Vergos, chairman of the council's parks committee, all declined to offer their opinions about Bailey's efforts.

Council member TaJuan Stout Mitchell said she wouldn't mind talking about the issue, if a proposal is submitted to the council.

"I will deal with it if I have to deal with it," Mitchell said. "I do see some merit in it. I don't think it would hurt to discuss it."

Gayle Rose, a local philanthropist whom Bailey also consulted, thinks one solution might be to broaden the discussion to ways to enhance the city's image.

Rose suggested recruiting a number of community leaders to participate in a comprehensive planning process to make the city's image appear more progressive.

"What kind of symbols are we sending to our citizens and to visitors?" Rose said. "Maybe it's time to look at that."

- Blake Fontenay:

529-2386

[GailA]

There is a poll with this on Poll

[07055]

Maybe they can rename one park for John Muhammed and the other for John Malvo?

[Alouette]

an era many Memphians would rather forget.

They got their butts whipped and were living under occupation. Yet, amazingly, no one blew themselves up aboard crowded steamboats or drove hijacked stagecoaches into buildings.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Maybe they can rename one park for John Muhammed and the other for John Malvo?

Well, it would be a long shot, but...

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Think about this for a moment. This controversy stems from a fighter's manager driving through Memphis and deciding the historic name of a park was "unbecoming." Having two idiots get paid millions to beat each other's brains out is pretty low-class to me. A better solution is to keep the riff raff of boxing out of Memphis.

[BenLurkin]

Maybe they can rename one park for John Muhammed and the other for John Malvo?

Perfect symbols for the NEW Memphis to show to the world.

[BenLurkin]

Ping.
Has the world gone insane?

[CPOSharky]

"These monuments are offensive to some people."

This guy is probably offensive to a whole lot of people.

[07055]

I found this article ironic because I just visited Forrest Park yesterday.

Do these nitwits realize that Forrest and his wife are buried there?

So, do they propose that their bodies be disinterred from their graves?

I suppose they could have a big party where they descrate the bones as part of the renaming ceremony? Maybe that would make them feel better?

[Arkinsaw]

Yet, amazingly, no one blew themselves up aboard crowded steamboats

Actually there was a steamboat that blew up, but not intentionally. The "Sultana" was overloaded carrying former Union prisoners of war back north when a flawed steam drum exploded. America's worst maritime tragedy.

The people of Memphis, within days of the end of the war, basically adopted the Federal troops who survived and took care of them. There is a monument to the "Sultana" in Memphis also.

[Godebert]

"Changes would be consistent with our efforts to become a world-class city," Bailey said. "These monuments are offensive to some people."

Those people would be the scalawags, NAACP and yankee socialist transplants.

[groanup]

I'm sick and tired of northern revisionist and their ilk objecting to Confederate symbols in some sort of holier-than-though mind game of political correctness. Sweep around your own front door before you call your neighbors messy:

"The North, it seems, have no more objections to slavery than the South have..." John Stuart Mill, 1861.

"The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states." Charles Dickens, 1862.

[Non-Sequitur]

I highly doubt that either Lennox Lewis or Mike Tyson had any idea who Jefferson Davis was, much less who Nathan Forrest was.

[contessa machiaveli]

"has the world gone insane"? ummm, yes.

[07055]

I agree.

But Lewis at least has the excuse that he's British. ;-)

Not that many Americans know who Oliver Cromwell was either.

[vetvetdoug]

Forrest Park is also in honor of General N.B. Forrest's great grandson, the first General killed leading his troops during WWII. General NB Forrest III was shot down by German fighters on a raid over Wilhavshaven (sp). General Forrest III believed as did his great grandfather, that leaders lead their men into battle.

[Destro]

Being honorable Christian Southern Gentlemen , how could they?

[bassmaner]

Those people would be the scalawags, NAACP and yankee socialist transplants.

Ahh, renaming of landmarks for political reasons ... where's that been done before? Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Stalingrad (Tsaritsyn) anyone?

Another small step in the march towards Soviet America.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Well, you know the political sensibilities of the 'rename-it' crowd and you also know that they pioneered a new form of political rally by dancing on the dead at Wellstone's send-off. You may not be too far off the beam with your suspicions.

For those whose world views hold no absolutes or concepts of sacredness, anything is fair game for political gain.

In fact, going further and proposing that the left begin disintering bodies of patriots and icons of conservatism and trafficking in the bones as fetishes and talismans for their political medicine bags may not be too far off either.

Prediction: An article will surface in the not too distant future regarding the Dems use of witchcraft/mysticism to advance their ideology or cripple that of conservatives. I have little doubt that such a thing will occur (and may be going on at the resent).

The barbarians walk among us.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Those who are victors generally rename those monuments, both natural and man made, raised by the conquered people.