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Today South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed the order for removal of the Confederate flag from the State House grounds. Her order was preceded by an emotional speech made by SC State Representative Jenny Horne who broke into tears demanding for its removal. “I have heard enough about heritage,” she sobbed.
Not to be outdone, Memphis, TN mayor A.C. Wharton wants the graves of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife dug up and removed from a a city park, along with a massive statue of the Confederate Civil War hero.
“Which African-American wants to have a picnic in the shadow of Nathan Bedford Forrest?” he asked in a Thursday press conference.
The Memphis City Council also agreed with the mayor. On Tuesday they voted unanimously to remove the graves and the statue from Health Sciences Park. Several groups are interested in obtaining the statue, while the status of the bodies lies with descendants of the Forrest family.
To be sure, Forrest was not someone of pristine character as was Robert E. Lee. Though he was an untrained military genius, he was responsible for the slaughter of 200 Union troops — many of them former slaves — after the capture of a garrison at the Battle of Fort Pillow in Tennessee. After the war it is believed Forrest served as the first Grand Dragon of the newly-formed Ku Klux Klan in 1866.
Forrest’s history notwithstanding, this purging of Southern heritage has become absurd. It reminds me of this little bit of Soviet history.
When Joseph Stalin died in 1953, he was entombed beside Vladimir Lenin. They rested side-by-side in a mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow where the masses could honor them together.
Their names were displayed on the front of the mausoleum, with Stalin’s on the bottom.
But in 1961 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev — not a fan of ‘Uncle Joe’ and his atrocities (but who knows what happened under Khrushchev) — declared that Mother Russia would undergo “de-Stalinization,” and that old Joe would be evicted from his tony grave and buried 300 feet from the Kremlin, where he lies to this day. Old party members still pay homage, although outside in the snow — not inside the Kremlin where Lenin lies.
So am I comparing the Perpetually Offended Social Justice Warriors with Khrushchev? Why yes, yes I am. What is the difference between the actions of these would-be totalitarians with Khrushchev and his ilk as they purge the South of its heritage? None. None at all.
Appalled By The World says: Will the remains be desecrated as well? How about urinating on them? Or tossing them into a bonfire-like the Nazis did with books in 1933 Germany? Why should the fanatics stop at merely removing the remains?
Wfjag says: First, let’s stop rewriting history:
Bedford Forrest was not at Ft Pillow when the “massacre” occurred;
It isn’t clear there was a massacre. When the Union troops fled their lines and were along the river, a Union gun boat appeared about a half mile up stream. While many of the Union Soldiers had thrown down their arms, many had not. The Fort’s colors had not been struck and no surrender had been agreed to. Mistakenly believing that the gun boat was part of a relief effort ( it wasn’t, it was going down stream to join the fleet), some Union Soldiers along the river began firing at CSA Soldiers on the bluff, above. The CSA Soldiers were reinforced and returned fire. A U.S. Congressional Committee investigated the incident after the Civil War, and although dominated by Republicans, exonerated Forrest;
When Forrest enlisted in the CSA in 1861, as Private, he brought with him 49 slaves. He promised the their freedom if they served faithfully for the duration of the War. 48 of them surrendered with him in 1865. Eight of them had been members of his personal bodyguard. His unit was behind Union lines 1/3 of the time, so there were ample opportunities for these slaves to escape;
After the War, Forrest established a railroad. Northern merchants boycotted it since he hired blacks (some of whom were former slaves) to work in any position they qualified, including Engineers and Firemen, and didn’t limit them to menial positions and manual labor;
After the War, Forrest was honored by the Mayfair Society, a civil rights organization. During the ceremony, a black woman gave him a bouquet of flowers and kissed him on the cheek. At that time, that was considered to be symbolic of social equality. It appears that Forrest knew this was planned and agreed to it.
Forrest was a complex man, and man of his times. He was not the simple racist PC-revisionism portrays him to be (there are many negatives which are true – he was violent, profane, and uneducated, and on a good day he held a grudge).
Carolyn Lee says: Shame,shame on Memphis.
I cannot believe that the Mayor and city of Memphis would desecrate the burial of Gen. And Mrs. Forrest .
This is a true hate crime. Nothing Christian about this, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
I will never go to Memphis again, and I think this city should be boycotted for such racial hate. Tearing down this monument and desecrating these graves is ghoulish .
These history revisionist are destroying America.
This is insanity in full bloom. When will enough be enough for the radical
right and these civil right groups who always “believe” someone belonged to the KKK to push their hate speech forward. They cannot prove it, but they can guilt the white population into believing anything they propagate. If a white belongs or was believed to belong to an organization they deem unforgivable.woe be to that person.
However, if you belong to the Black Panthers or the Isle of Islam you are cheered. Never mind that they hate the white race and hope for that races extermination.
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