A group of protesters who want the body of an alleged Ku Klux Klan leader removed from their city have broken the soil over the grave.
The campaigners claim it has taken officials in Memphis, Tennessee, too long to exhume Nathan Bedford Forrest – who was a lieutenant general in the Confederate States Army.
They also want the statue of the soldier on a horse on the burial site to be removed. The rebel cavalryman, who died in 1877, has been buried in the city’s Health Sciences Park since 1904.
A group of protesters started digging up the grave of Confederate general Nathan Beford Forrest in Memphis
The activist shoveled a patch of earth out of the grave, saying they were unhappy with a lack of progress by lawmakers to have the memorial to Bedford Forrest removed
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The city’s mayor, AC Wharton, began a push to remove the body and statue in the wake of the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, but needs approval from several branches of government before he can take action.
Members of the protest group, who call themselves the Commission on Religion and Racism, removed only a small patch of grass from the park, but threatened to return with heavy machinery to tear down the wartime symbol.
Isaac Richmond, the group’s leader, told local station WREG: ‘If he’s gone, some of this racism and race-hate might be gone. We got a fresh shovel full, and we hope that everybody else will follow suit and dig him up.
‘We are going to bring the back hoe, the tractors and the men with the equipment to raise Bedford Forrest from the soil of Memphis.’
Forrest’s statue, in the Health Sciences Park of Memphis, Tennessee. It could be taken away if efforts by city lawmakers are successful
Forrest has been honored all across Tennessee, but in recent years places bearing his name have been renamed – including the park in which he is buried
Forrest is said to have been an early KKK member and reportedly its first Grand Wizard
The move outraged a spokesman for Forrest’s family, who said the act was vandalism and that the protesters had broken the law.
One man even drove some 270 miles to replace the turf after being dismayed by footage of the digging.
The Memphis city council has already approved a resolution to remove the statue and dig up the body, which was moved to the park from a private cemetery in 1904.
However, a recent state heritage law prevents any more memorials to historical figures from the Civil War from being renamed without approval from a government commission, which could prevent the statue from being moved.
Forrest, a lieutenant general in the Confederate States Army, has memorials in his name across Tennessee, including a bust in the state capitol, a high school and a building at Middle Tennessee State University.
The park in which he is buried was also called Forrest Park until it was renamed in February 2013.
Mayor AC Wharton has led calls to stop honoring Forrest, saying he belongs to a ‘despicable period’.
Last month he told a news conference: ‘These relics, these messages of this despicable period of this great nation, it’s time for those to be moved.’
‘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’.
Isaac Richmond, center, said the protest group would return with heavy machinery unless the statue was removed by the government
Forrest is thought to have been the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, which was formed after the Confederate surrender in 1865.
In later life he denied all membership of the organization, but has still been heavily associated with it.
There have been moves elsewhere in Tennessee to remove memorials of Forrest.
According to NPR, officials at the state capitol are considering throwing out a bust of the general.
Local officials in Nashville asked the state department of transportation to plant trees to cover up a private memorial to Forrest which is visible from the I-65 freeway, but had their request turned down.
Crazy stupid.
Then likewise to MLK JR and all the other Communist; have a big fire and then dump their ashes in a toilet.
A little known aspect of Forrest .
“Forrest’s speech during a meeting of the “Jubilee of Pole Bearers” is a story that needs to be told. Gen. Forrest was the first white man to be invited by this group which was a forerunner of today’s Civil Right’s group. A reporter of the Memphis Avalanche newspaper was sent to cover the event that included a Southern barbeque supper.
Miss Lou Lewis, daughter of a Pole Bearer member, was introduced to Forrest and she presented the former general a bouquet of flowers as a token of reconciliation, peace and good will. On July 5, 1875, Nathan Bedford Forrest delivered this speech:
“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.)
End of speech.1
Nathan Bedford 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.
J.H. Sears, Charles Kelly Barrow “Black Southerners In Confederate Armies” (Pelican, 2007) “
A salute to the gentleman being dishonored by people whom Miss Lewis would certainly have disowned as “brothers”.
Thank you for bringing this superb short speech to our attention!
Nathan Bedford Forrest was one of America’s great cavalry officers.
Forrest’s reputation has been besmirched by his incorrect association with what the Klan became.
During Forrest’s time it was a local protection unit for southerners against the depredations of carpetbaggers, rogues, thieves, and criminals.
Yay! I’m so happy someone else knows this story about my hero(swoon) General Forrest! A couple of other fun facts to know about General Forrest, which you probably already know, but just in case! His speech to his men at the end of the War was great. Which is probably why revisionist history books omit it. Also glossed over is that the Original Klan was a response to the Black Union League. The Klan of General Forrest’s day was disbanded, and the KKK of today is a completely different kettle of fish. Now, a question for those who think all Southerners are evil racists, Why then, do the newspapers of that day claim that there were thousands of Negros at General Forrest’s funeral if he was a hateful racist? Because he wasn’t, nor were the majority of the people in the South. The Revisionist history taught ignores the many, many stories of genuine affection and devotion between master and slave. Many a loyal servant followed their master to War, and fought bravely for the Confederacy, and when their Master fell in battle, they courageously found their way back home determined to deliver their Master’s last words and their sword, or some other momento to the grieving Mother and Widow to whom they had promised to care for their beloved. Think about that. The servant had their Master’s horse, his sword, and probably some money as well, and so easily they could have ridden to Freedom, yet they choose to do the honorable thing, and considered home in the South. If relations between slave owner and slave were so horrible, than how is it that as the men of the Confederate Army rode off to War, they were totally confident that there was no danger in entrusting the care of their families to their slaves? In the same vein, despite the fact that there was not a white man over 15 or under 70 left at home on the Plantations all over the South for 4 years, there were no slave rebellions, no white women were murdered or raped , despite some women living on Plantations with 300 plus slaves. It is ridiculous to think that people that spent as much time together as did blacks and whites in the Old South, as they do today, that there was not , and is not, love and kindness and mutual respect on both sides.
He knew he was going to die of stomach cancer. Mary Ann Forrest was a pious woman. He began to attend church services with her. He repented of all the evil things he had done in his life and was redeemed by his Lord and Savior Jesus. He received grace, forgiveness, and love from his Lord. He is in heaven now I believe. I expect to see him there.
Makes you wish zombies were real.
The Klan was formed to protect southern families from the lawlessness and plunder heaped upon them by carpetbaggers and the occupying forces following the war’s end, laughably termed ‘reconstruction’. It’s analogous to the mafia in Sicily. Sicily, in the middle of the Mediterranean is the most conquered land in the world. Remember the movie ‘Patton’ as he rode his victory parade thru Palermo? “The Greeks, the Romans, the Carthaginians……..Now the American Army!” Each successive conquering force set up it’s own government to do what governments do: pass laws to enslave the peons and plunder-no different from the governments of today. So the mafia was an indigenous force organically formed to fight back, naturally attracting the most fearless and determined men into their ranks. Same with the Klan. Only in the American south the oppression lasted a generation or so whereas in Sicily it lasted for hundreds of generations so was honed to a much more potent and pervasive force. Both morphed into something terrible but it’s important to learn the real truth; oppressed people eventually fight back by any means necessary and government is an oppressor by it’s very nature. A thoughtful, nuanced approach to the Klan and it’s place in history will reveal much of value to honest, intelligent people in search of truth. The idiotic, grandstanding, reactionary ignoramuses hauling down statues of geniuses like N B Forrest are exactly the evil he fought to defend his family and neighbors from. That fight continues.
And now they’re digging up graves. Fucking ghouls.
CC = +++
buckhed…you’re wasting your time and breath
Not on me he didn’t.
Not on most all regular TBP’ers.
Some old darkeys dug up the crabgrass NEXT TO Nathan B. Forrest’s grave and that is reported as trying to dig him up????
Time to start the Great Crabgrass War of Aggression. Good Lord……..
Those nigger grave robbers need to be strung up from a tall oak tree.
The idiot leftist heads will explode if anyone asks them to explain the Louisiana regiments during the War Between the States, which were all African Americans fighting for the Confederacy.
There were the local African-American freemen volunteers of the Corps d’Afrique.
Seven of Louisiana’s largest plantation owners were African Americans. These seven sponsored well-outfitted regiments for the Confederacy.
They were fighting for hearth and home.
Fucking Cultural Marxists and their dishonesty about collective identity.
States Rights and Death to Commies!!!!
The $PLC needs to identify this group of “hate ghouls” and out them for the racist throwbacks that they are!
Another example of the breaking down of rule of law. Bet no charges are are brought forth.
It’s worse than that…..this kind of shit normalizes it. It will be incrementally more outrageous each successive time until they actually dig up a body.
I’ve used the speech given by Forrest to absolutely bend over a few NAACP types here in S.C. Especially a state senator on the radio,I called in…made him look like an idiot ( which he is when it comes to history).
I keep wondering when they’ll come and want to destroy the gravesite of my great,great grandfather who served in the War Against Northern Aggression . His and other relatives in my families cemetery have the Confederate flag etched into their markers . If I ever see them being defaced it won’t be pretty.
To the person who voted down my post on Forrest’s speech…I hope the fleas of a thousand dogs invades your asshole .
When I read that prior comment and then noticed the two down-votes, I wondered how could anyone do that. There are truly some really stupid or hate-filled liberals that need to be put down.
I’m from S.C. too, and I am with you, if they start messing with our honorable Confederate ancestors!
I’m from S.C. and I’m with you, too.
All the statues and grave sites didn’t seem to be much of an issue over the past 100 and some odd years, especially were not an issue the past 8 years whilst be were governed by a black president.
But now today we need to knock them all down, remove images from the ‘hallowed’ halls of congress, knock over tombstones and remove the bones from the ground. WTF is going on? Why is today any different from yesterday or the past week? Is it all because of one death at basically marginally attended protest in Virginia?
It seems a faction of our society woke up the other day and lost their collective minds, seems like a timeout is in order before this whole thing spins way out of control, just look at how things have escalated in just the past three days. The protesters can see that they have a free pass and nobody is getting in their way. Fear of being politically incorrect will hold leaders back from from taking a stand against this lunacy.
The eclipse of society is coming.
I’ve been wondering the same thing. For over 100 years these statues haven’t been a problem. Heck even a couple of years ago, it was a non issue. But all of a sudden…..
Reminds me of the transgender bathroom issue of last summer. Suddenly an issue and now no one seems to talk about it any more.
Wonder what the magician is doing while the masses are distracted.
Idaho Homesteader
It seems to me, that if the Veterans of both the Union and Confederate armies managed to get beyond the horror of the War and came together to honor each other shortly after the War ended, such as having reunions together where they gave glowing speeches of admiration about their former enemy, that we should be able to “let it go” ?
What did Nathan Bedford Forest have to do w/ Mr. Roof?
They started digging . . . and then they realized digging is work . . and work is hard, so they stopped, having just barely scratched the surface. Man, if this race war kicks off the knee-grow side is in a world of hurt.
For some reason I thought of this about your comment about them using a shovel.
From the book Gone With The Wind. Scarlett says:
“What are you boys doing so far from Tara? You’ve run away, I’ll be bound. Don’t you know the patterollers will get you sure?”
They bellowed pleasedly at the badinage.
“Runned away?” answered Big Sam. “No’m, us ain’ runned away. Dey done sont an’ tuck us, kase us wuz de fo’ bigges’ an’ stronges’ han’s at Tara.” His white teeth showed proudly. “Dey specially sont fer me, kase Ah could sing so good. Yas’m, Mist’ Frank Kennedy, he come by an’ tuck us.”
“But why, Big Sam?”
“Lawd, Miss Scarlett! Ain’ you heerd? Us is ter dig de ditches fer de wite gempmums ter hide in w’en de Yankees comes.”
Captain Randall and the occupants of the carriage smothered smiles at this naive explanation of rifle pits.
I copied several important comments and emailed to my contacts.
Just so you know: This actually happened 2 years ago. This website literally just reposted an old article from the daily mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3173456/vigilante-protestors-start-DIGGING-body-Confederate-general-Nathan-Forrest-KKK-leader-grave.html There is another article in the daily mirror: http://www.Theamericanmirror.com/impatient-protestors-begin-digging-up-confederate-generals-grave-themselves/ also from 2015. As is the washington times article.
The Left has spend the past five days proving that everything the Alt-Right says about them is true.
This is what happens when large numbers of people are unemployed and on the dole. Take away the EBT card, oblunder phone, and section 8 housing and force these fuckers to go to work like us deplorables. That’ll solve the problem. And arrest any of these idiots who destroy public property.
“And now they’re digging up graves. Fucking ghouls.”
Now the ghouls will be self congratulatory for a few
days. Hey! High Five!
My ancestor, William Eagleton Donnell, was mortally wounded in the battle of Dover Tenn while serving under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Joseph Wheeler. He was in the 4th Tenn calvary Starnes regiment. On a side note, Virgil Earp, the brother of Wyatt, was manning the artillery piece in the town square on the northern aggression side. Don’t know what kind of wound he sustained but it took him about a month to expire. Left that family destitute.
Whenever it actually occurred, to attempt to desecrate a grave is just about the lowest most despicable act I can imagine. How horrible for his descendants. I would assume those brats have an impeccable lineage and nobody in their family so much as stolen a candy bar… until they ruined their family name forever by such a loathsome act. Karma is a bitch… this bunch will probably meet her more than once in their lifetime.
I do not know when the time-honored acts of simply pissing or dancing on the grave of someone you hated gave way to digging them up. I would have thought that pissing or dancing would give satisfaction enough.
Hello Llpoh,
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Best Wishes.
Dear Stormer – if and when you ever get your site up and running again, please advise.
It’s up slowpoke.
Niglets are restless tonight. Looks like they’ve ambushed cops in three cities and shot six.
No other soldier in any wars fought by men born of American
soil was so praised by both those who
wrote history, those who fought against him and those who fought on his side.
1) His greatest adversary William T. Sherman called him “the most
remarkable man our civil war produced on either side’ & ‘he had a
strategy which was original & incomprehensible. There was no theory
or art of war by which I could calculate with any degree of certainty
what Forrest was up to.’
2) Shelby Foote who wrote the monumental 3-volume Civil War A Narrative:
Held that there were two authentic geniuses to emerge from the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln & Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.
3) After his surrender, when asked by a Union Officer who
he thought his greatest general was, General Robert E. Lee
replied, Sir, a gentleman I have never had the pleasure to meet,
General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
On the positive side this is the Death of the Left. Moderate Democrats like I once was are leaving the party in droves because of madness of this kind. Keep it up idiots & you’ll wake up to the total disaster Pelosi, Waters, Hilary & Obama have led you to ! If I didn’t already know progressives were so damn stupid, I’d say this was a right wing plot to install One Party Rule but actually they’re committing political suicide all by themselves.