State denies Nashville’s request to block I-65 Forrest statue

The state of Tennessee has denied the request of Nashville’s Metro Council to plant trees and vegetation to block the view of a controversial Nathan Bedford Forrest statue on Interstate 65.

The Metro Council approved a resolution earlier this month that asks the Tennessee Department of Transportation “take the necessary action” to plant vegetation to block the view of the private owned statue that stands along the interstate.

But TDOT commissioner John Schroer informed the council on Monday morning that it does not plant vegetation on its property for the sole purpose of blocking items on nearby private land.

Schroer's response came in an email to the Metro clerk's office that reads:

“TDOT does not plant foliage on its right-of-way with the sole intention of blocking items on private property based on what might be offensive to some and not to others. Therefore, the request of Metro Nashville’s Council to have TDOT plant vegetation on I-65 near the Harding Place Exit is respectfully denied.”

Forrest, born in Middle Tennessee, was a lieutenant general for the Confederate Army during the Civil War and first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

At issue is a 25-foot fiberglass Forrest statue, designed by the late sculptor and attorney Jack Kershaw, erected on private land in 1998 near Crieve Hall. Kershaw was among a series of attorneys hired by James Earl Ray after being convicted of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

The council resolution was sponsored by At-large Councilman Jerry Maynard. One of his colleagues Megan Barry, a candidate for mayor of Nashville, has called for the blocking the sight of the statue as well.

The statue has been a source of controversy in Nashville and occasional vandalism ever since it was erected in 1998. The statue, surrounded by Confederate battle flags, sits on a 3.5-acre property owned by Bill Dorris, a Nashville businessman. The state had cleared vegetation in 1998 in order to make the Forrest statue visible from the interstate. Former state Sen. Douglas Henry, D-Nashville, led those efforts.

Some of the 14 Confederate battle flags have been damaged from recent weather and thus taken down for repairs, but Dorris told The Tennessean that he plans to put them back up soon. He said he doesn't believe the tearing of the flags was the result of vandals.

"As soon as they get repaired, they will be back up there, but they might be in a different configuration than they have been," Dorris said.

Dorris said he had some 100-foot flag poles ready to go if the state had gone forward with blocking the sight of the statue. Asked for his response to the state's decision, he said that he does wish there was a "calming-wall" to limit noise coming from the highway. He said planting vegetation to block his statue, however, would have set a bad precedent.

"I understand where the state's coming from because any time anybody saw something and their eye sight got offended, they would want the state to come play with it — whether it be a billboard or cell tower or whatever it was, they would want something planted there in front of it," Dorris said. "There's not enough money to plant enough trees for all that."

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.