It was Memorial Day, and I decided to see if any history would rub off on me if I made a personal visit to the Nathan Bedford Forrest monument, the removal of which has been blocked by the Tennessee Historical Commission in coordination with the Tennessee legislature.
That’s what supporters of Forrest and the monument use as an argument, that it is a history lesson. I had seen a Mississippi legislator on TV defending the honor of the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue in Health Sciences Park – formerly Bedford Forrest Park – in Memphis, Tennessee.
No, not state representative Karl Oliver who said those who move such monuments to Confederate generals “should be lynched.”
“If we don’t learn from the mistakes of history, we are bound to repeat them,” this other Mississippi representative said.
LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
That’s a good thought. I say that a lot myself. I said that in 2003 when comparing George Bush attacking and occupying Iraq to the Vietnam War. Of course, Bush dodged military service himself during the days of the draft and Vietnam by skipping his National Guard duty before his daddy got him off the hook. When it came time for “W” to make his own war, maybe it was like what he said about Osama Bin Laden, that he did not think much about Bin Laden (or Vietnam) any more.
I may have learned about Vietnam over the years, but nothing from a statue; we don’t need a monument to Gen. Curtis “bomb them back to the Stone Age” LeMay to learn about Vietnam.
The argument that Confederate flags and monuments are part of history and thus should not be obscured from view is a go-to for many in today’s Old South. As American cities struggle with these decisions, the trend is for the monuments to be moved to more private locations. The City of New Orleans recently made news for removing a monument to Gen. Robert E. Lee, the last of four the city has taken down.
HEALTH SCIENCES BATTLEFIELD
Pulling up to Health Sciences Park, it looked like more than a political battlefield. It was as if cannon balls had broken trees and shrapnel had shredded leaves and limbs after Saturday night’s violent storm.
As I walked up to Forrest’s statue, I was surprised how big was the bronze idol – 21 and a half feet tall, and at a one and a half scale. The enormity and grandeur of the man atop his mighty steed “King Phillip” shot this thought into my brain, “This man must have been a god.” Nothing less than deity could have inspired those people to erect such a grand monument.
Sure enough, there is actually a “god” reference on its side: “He fought like a Titan and struck like a god. And his dust is our ashes of glory.”
The next thought that entered the brain, “Domination...power.”
It was almost a sick feeling. I had known intellectually that Forrest had to go, that what he symbolized was wrong and that it was a slap in the face to the majority of persons in this Southern city.
“Fear...intimidation...force,” I thought.
There were no facts or intellectual aspects here. What happened affected my gut. I “felt” more why Lt. General Forrest has to go, but I didn’t “know” more.
HISTORY NOT LOCATED
This is about the worship of one man and the white supremacy he represents, not about education or history. I did not learn any history. There is no historical information to be learned from “touring” this park and monument. I had to research on the Internet to find out the size of the statue, its background and that the Gen. Forrest Historical Society said this about it in 1905:
“General Nathan Bedford Forrest commands today as he did in the days of struggle and strife, when his words were law and his commands were as binding as bands of steel."
I knew how they and the modern-day “Confederates” felt about it already. I have heard the arguments – lots about “history” – and sensed their fervor, like when a string of Forrest supporters including unabashed Confederates testified at City Council in 2015.
Those who supported Forrest then and now are passionate about their convictions to control and put down. They exist at an extreme that has no place in society.
They cling to these words: “Forrest commands today.”
BRONZE IDOL
What I got from feeling small and gazing up at that monument was this is a bronze idol that stands for the power and domination that Forrest wielded as a Rebel lieutenant general, slave trader and first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. It is a glorification of military might that will be used as needed to keep one group in charge and another down on the farm.
You look up and you see the bottoms of his boots. You imagine those boots on the necks of or stomping those beneath him, figuratively and literally.
So, I had a contrary experience of feelings about equality and chains and bands of steel and boots, while not so much history lesson. But something did “rub off” on me — that being a reminder of how post-Confederates then (and neo-Confederates today) viewed Forrest and what he stood for. That hit me in the gut. In hindsight, that was my lesson of the day — which started out tongue-in-cheek — a felt experience that came from this trek to the misplaced monument in this modern-day battlefield.
And I shot some video of the storm damage -- the power of entitled nature -- not the unearned power of one man over other men.
Gary T. Moore operates the non-profit www.CitizensMediaResource.org and is a filmmaker of social justice issues. www.WatchTheWatchersFilm.com