Memphis, Tenn., Votes to Exhume Body of Confederate General, KKK Leader Buried in City Park

The Root ^ | 7/9/2015 | Breanna Edwards

[mojito]

Memphis, Tenn., city leaders unanimously voted on Tuesday night to exhume the body of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader who is buried in the city’s Health Sciences Park, and move him to a private cemetery, Fusion reports. According to the report, the City Council also voted to move his wife’s body from the park and to take down the statue of Forrest sitting on a horse that currently stands in the park.

The action is just one of the more recent moves of city and state leaders pushing for the removal of Confederate symbols. On Thursday the South Carolina Legislature officially passed a bill to remove its controversial Confederate battle flag from Statehouse grounds altogether.

Disapproval of the battle flag and other Confederate symbols has spiked in recent weeks since the horrific massacre in Charleston, S.C., at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church that left nine people, including South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, dead. The suspect arrested in those murders, Dylann Roof, was seen across social media and in the news posing with the flag.

“Nathan Bedford Forrest is a symbol of bigotry and racism, and those symbols have no place on public property,” council Chairman Myron Lowery told Fusion. “What we’re doing here in Memphis is no different from what’s happening across the country.”

Forrest was a Memphis native who made his wealth in the slave trade and gained name recognition as a general for the Confederate Army. He later became the KKK’s first Grand Wizard in 1868 but eventually withdrew from the notorious hate group.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This is a disgrace, no matter who it is.

[catfish1957]

One Freeper told me Saturday, that even descreating Confederate Soldiers graves may break federal law. Some law in 1898, signed by McKinley.

Let's hope a legal challenge ensues. May be a class action suit against the entire city of Memphis?

[fireforeffect]

My understanding is that they want to sell the park to UT medical school for an expansion project.

8.6 acres, one of the best green spaces in Memphis.

[Little Ray]

Send him here to Georgia. We will honor him and find a resting place for him.
Hmmm. Maybe at Stone Mountain. That would stick it to Atlanta...

[KC Burke]

As I recall, NB Forrest was in Yellow Rose of Texas’s ancestry.

I can just imagine what she would post about this.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[This is insane. Isn’t there a law against this? If not, there is certainly a long history and tradition of having respect for those who are at rest. This is gruesome and disrespectful.]

Below was posted Sunday by GailA on a similar story:

First the racist of Memphis have to get family permission to move the graves, they can go to Chancery Court. IF the family refuses. Which knowing TWICE convicted criminal Myron Lowery that is the route they will go as they know the family will say HELL NO.

Then they have to get past this LAW signed by Bill Haslam, Effective as of April 1, 2013
called the “Tennessee Heritage Protection Act”
NO military memorials can be removed
including those from the ‘War Between the States’ !

http://www.tn.gov/sos/acts/108/pub/pc0075.pdf

Then they have to get past the National Historical Registry, as the statute is on their list.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[If he goes anywhere it should be a military cemetery with full honors as the law declares he is entitled to.]

There is a military cemetery at Shiloh Military Park in Hardin County, Tennessee. Forrest fought at Shiloh.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

A month later, Forrest was back in action at the Battle of Shiloh (April 6 to 7, 1862). He commanded a Confederate rear guard after the Union victory. In the battle of Shiloh he drove through the Union skirmish line. Not realizing that the rest of his men had halted their charge when reaching the full Union brigade, Forrest charged the brigade single-handedly, and soon found himself surrounded. He emptied his Colt Army revolvers into the swirling mass of Union soldiers and pulled out his saber, hacking and slashing. A Union infantryman fired a musket ball into Forrest’s spine with a point-blank musket shot, nearly knocking him out of the saddle. Forrest grabbed an unsuspecting Union soldier, hauled him onto his horse to use as a shield, dumped the man once he had broken clear and was out of range, then galloped back to his incredulous troopers.[20] A surgeon removed the musket ball a week later, without anesthesia, which was unavailable. Forrest would likely have been given a generous dose of alcohol to muffle the pain of the surgery.[21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Bedford_Forrest

[trisham]

Thank goodness. Thank you, Brad from Tennessee.

[BlackElk]

That was Charles II, the Merry Monarch. James II succeeded his brother Charles II. Charles II could not hang Oliver Cromwell during Cromwell's life. He did the next best thing and hanged the remains from a tripod outside the gates to the City of London. Eventually Cromwell's head disappeared in a storm. Rumor has it that the skull was stripped and covered in molten silver with the top removed to serve as a ceremonial drinking cup for private but formal royal family occasions. Hopefully, the rumor is true.

Nathan Bedford Forrest, OTOH, was an honorable man, a brilliant soldier and military leader, and a distinguished citizen. Memphis is proving that it was not fit to have his remains in its cemetery.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Then we should dig up Robert Byrd and all the other Democrats. Slippery slope...

[knarf]

yup ... that’s what I said

[TIElniff]

You’re right (I looked it up after I posted that note).

According to Wikipedia, Cromwell’s skull was posted on a pole in front of Westminster Hall for the next 25 (!) years:

“Cromwell’s severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685. Afterwards it allegedly was owned by various people and was publicly exhibited several times. Afterwards, the head changed hands several times, including its sale in 1814 to Josiah Henry Wilkinson, before eventually being buried beneath the floor of the antechapel at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960. The exact position was not publicly disclosed, but as noted below a plaque marks the approximate location.”

[Amagi]

Brilliant stewardship of tax payer funds.
I know I would want my local political elites to use my tax dollars to desecrate graves and evict dead bodies as I'm sure everyone else does too.

[razorback-bert]

My g-Gfather (col) and his brother (lt) rode with Forrest.

[KC Burke]

Shelby Foote was at a commemorative event with the grand-daughter of NBF and he told her that in the civil war in his opinion there were two true genius minds. Forrest and Lincoln.

She said, “in our family sir, we don’t speak of that other man.”