Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire memphis mayor wants to dig up General Forrest and his wife's graves and move them

By Todd Starnes

Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton wants to dig up the bodies of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife and remove them from a city park in the latest and perhaps most despicable example of the anti-Southern cleansing spreading across the nation.

“Which African-American wants to have a picnic in the shadow of Nathan Bedford Forrest?” Wharton said in a Thursday press briefing.

In addition to desecrating the graves, Wharton wants to tear down a massive statue honoring the Confederate general who was involved in organizing the Ku Klux Klan. The bodies of Forrest and his wife would be relocated to a cemetery.

“These relics, these messages of this despicable period of this great nation, it’s time for those to be moved,” the mayor said.

Memphis city officials have been waging a fierce and unrelenting war on southern heritage. In 2013, the city council changed the name of Forrest Park to Health Sciences Park. They also changed the names of Jefferson Davis Park and Confederate Park.

So now they want to disinter the dead? What in God’s name is wrong with the mayor? What kind of sick, twisted person wants to dig up dead people?


“I despise what the Confederacy stood for,” Wharton said. “This is not just an ordinary monument. This is a monument to a man who was the avowed founder of the organization that has as its purpose the intimidation, the oppression of black folks.”

The local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans staunchly opposes the attempted grave desecration.

Lee Millar pointed out that Forrest and his wife have been buried there for more than 100 years.

“Aren’t these guys over it yet?” he told The Commercial Appeal. “Let’s worry about today’s problems, high crime, high taxes, low education. It just seems to me misguided priorities.”

Myron Lowery, the black city council chairman, said the statue is a “symbol of bigotry, a symbol of hate.”

I’m not trying to change history, history is what it is, but in 2015, this day and age is much different that it was 100 years ago,” he said.

Could you imagine if a white mayor had announced his intention to dig up…well – you get the point.

I warned you this would happen, folks. I told you the Confederate flag ban would lead to an all-out assault on Southern heritage.

And now – there are literally hundreds of efforts underway to change the names of schools, parks, streets and buildings named after Confederate generals. Stores are banning the sale of Confederate merchandise.

Movies like “Gone With the Wind” and “Forrest Gump” and television shows like “The Dukes of Hazzard” are under attack.

Most recently, there have been calls to banish grocery store items like Aunt Jemima Syrup and Uncle Ben’s Rice.

And now they want to start digging up dead bodies?

I shudder to imagine what’s next in this Stalinist-style cultural purging of the Southern states.

President Obama suggested that racism was in our DNA. If that’s the case, it may not be that much of a stretch to imagine a day when activists demand that the descendants of Confederate soldiers be deported.

A bit of hyperbole, I confess.

But it might be a good idea to keep your passport handy.

He's gotta be. N i g g e r

Idiot of the Day

I graduated from NB Forrest High School in Jax. They recently changed the name to "Westside High School", with a Wolverine mascot replacing the old Rebel soldier.

Guess it could have been worse. The runner up name was Barack Hussein Obama High School.

Should tar and feather that SOB

We don't need this bastard pulling this.. The KKK came into being because the blacks under reconstruction were merely animals preying on the southern society.. The Fed. troops were stationed there to see the blacks were not harmed.. Thus the KKK can to be to protect white southerners.. Sounds a lot like today.. Maybe it is time.

Told Ya!! Cemeteries were next!

Actually, Mayor Wharton has done a very good job as Mayor compared to what Memphis had before. For those of you not in this area, you may not know that this town is well over 50% black. They will change that statue and remove those graves if that is what they want to do, and there is nothing we the minority can do about it.

Still don't make it right. miles

seems like that should be a state issue not a city issue

MAYOR WHARTON you have no right to dig up the dead, stop playing god

Wonder what will happen in Forrest City, Arkansas, just a few miles down I-40. It has it's share of blacks too. miles

Why would anyone want to honor a founder of the king of racist organizations?

So any liberal majority anywhere can disecrate as many cemeteries anywhere if they so choose? I remember seeing news reel footage of nazis doing just that to Jewish graves. Who are the real Nazis here???

KNOW YOUR HISTORY ROCK CHUCK

The Western side of the River has different folks than the Eastern side. Them Black folk in Forrest City ain't gonna be doing ANYTHING unruly.

[I was gonna say that that they "knows their place", but that sounds sorta racist]

http://youwereliedtoabout.com/nbf.htm


No serious historian argues that Forrest organized the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was begun by six men, whose names are known, in Pulaski, Tennessee. Intended to be a social club, the Klan quickly adopted political goals and began to oppose the Radical Republican plan for Reconstruction. Popular news media today ignore these well established facts, charging that Forrest founded the Klan, and academic historians do not speak out to correct the misinformation.

One prominent historian, Robert Selph Henry, states the issue clearly. Speaking of Forrest he says, His second public career, in the days after the war, however, rests entirely on tradition and legend, for most of what he did in those desperate days of struggle was never written down and some of it,no doubt, never told. The Klan was a secret organization and No man who could have known the fact of his own knowledge ever wrote it down and published it, but it is universally believed in the South, nevertheless, that Forrest was the Grand Wizard.[2] An even earlier historian, John Allan Wyeth, considered the matter of the Klan carefully before writing his biography of Forrest in 1899. Wyeth concluded that Forrest was not intimately involved in the Klan for a very simple reason: he was too obvious a candidate for the position of leader. Forrest felt it was inevitable that suspicion would focus on the Klan as it began to make an effective resistance to the policies of Reconstruction. Of all the men in the South who might be thought to be involved in the organization he knew he would be the first to be suspected of being its leader. Forrest was too good a strategist to occupy such an obvious position. Forrest readily admitted knowledge of the Klan but denied any personal involvement.[3]

Henry is quite honest and very accurate in saying that the Reconstruction Era Klan was, and is, surrounded by legend and mystery. He is true to historical sources in saying that the link of Forrest with the Klan is a matter of tradition and of folk belief, not of demonstrable historic fact. The firmly stated association of Forrest with the Klan is the position taken by more recent writers who have no more facts than Henry did but who choose to draw very different conclusions.

This means that the identification of Forrest as Grand Wizard of the Klan rests on sources written from memory long after the events of the 1860's at a time when the reputation of the Klan was very positive in the minds of many white Americans. No documentation exists which provides solid, historically accurate evidence of the association of Forrest with the Klan.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a slave trader. That sounds bad to Twenty-first Century ears, but Forrest lived in the Nineteenth Century. His actions must be judged by the morals of that day, not ours.

Forrest was a plantation owner and that means in the minds of some, that he must have been an exploiter of his labor force. Forrest certainly owned plantations. "Plantation" means a place where something is planted; "plantation" is a synonym for "farm," although the denotation is that a "plantation" is larger than a "farm."

Nathan Bedford Forrest should not be viewed as anything more or less than he was----a man of the 19th Century who held the views, attitudes, and values of his time; a man who became a fierce warrior during the conflict of Civil War; and a man who stood for what was widely considered to be fair and reasonable treatment following the end of the fighting. Forrest was not a perfect man, nor was any other character of that era (or of this) but he deserves to be judged fairly, not with preconceived and prejudiced ideas.

You need to learn a bit more about history, RockChuck. Though, it won't matter much longer; any history that is in conflict with the agenda of the empire will be erased and replaced with that which supports the continuation of the imperial meme.

When Forrest died in 1877 it is noteworthy that his funeral in Memphis was attended not only by a throng of thousands of whites but by hundreds of blacks as well. The funeral procession was over two miles long and was attended by over 10,000 area residents, including 3000 black citizens paying their respects.

http://www.tennessee-scv.org/ForrestHistSociety/forrest_speech.html


Forrest's speech to the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association July 5, 1875.

A convention and BBQ was held by the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association at the fairgrounds of Memphis, five miles east of the city. An invitation to speak was conveyed to General Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the city's most prominent citizens, and one of the foremost cavalry commanders in the late War Between the States. This was the first invitation granted to a white man to speak at this gathering. The invitation's purpose, one of the leaders said, was to extend peace, joy, and union, and following a brief welcoming address a Miss Lou Lewis, daughter of an officer of the Pole-Bearers, brought forward flowers and assurances that she conveyed them as a token of good will. After Miss Lewis handed him the flowers, General Forrest responded with a short speech that, in the contemporary pages of the Memphis Appeal, evinces Forrest's racial open-mindedness that seemed to have been growing in him.

Ladies and Gentlemen I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is any one on God's earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. ( Immense applause and laughter.) I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate every man to depress none. (Applause.) I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going. I have not said anything about politics today. I don't propose to say anything about politics. You have a right to elect whom you please; vote for the man you think best, and I think, when that is done, you and I are freemen. Do as you consider right and honest in electing men for office. I did not come here to make you a long speech, although invited to do so by you. I am not much of a speaker, and my business prevented me from preparing myself. I came to meet you as friends, and welcome you to the white people. I want you to come nearer to us. When I can serve you I will do so. We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict. Go to work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly, and when you are oppressed I'll come to your relief. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this opportunity you have afforded me to be with you, and to assure you that I am with you in heart and in hand. (Prolonged applause.)

Whereupon N. B. Forrest again thanked Miss Lewis for the bouquet and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. Such a kiss was unheard of in the society of those days, in 1875, but it showed a token of respect and friendship between the general and the black community and did much to promote harmony among the citizens of Memphis.

People need to just chill out. The civil war was over 150 years ago, and no one is talking about bringing back slavery...why are people so up in a tiff??? Social media has created a feeding frenzy. Me personally, I don't care about the Rebel Flag one way or another. I totally get the points of both sides on that one, so whatever happens just happens. But good LAWD, now we're going to dig up someone who's been dead for 150 years and move them? If someone who has been dead for 150 years is causing you THAT much grief, you SERIOUSLY need to be medicated.