House passes bill making it harder to remove controversial statues
The Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill making it more difficult to remove statues or monuments named after controversial figures. That would include Nathan Bedford Forrest's bust in the state Capitol.
The move is an attempt to push back against efforts throughout the nation to remove remnants of the Confederacy, including Forrest, from public places.
Supporters of Forrest call him a military tactician genius, while others point to his role as a slave trader and his involvement in the Ku Klux Klan.
House vote could affect Nathan Bedford Forrest bust
Sponsored by Rep. Steve McDaniel, R-Parkers Crossroads, the measure requires anyone interested in renaming, removing or relocating any statues, monuments and other memorials to receive a two-thirds vote from the Tennessee Historical Commission.
Current law requires only a majority vote by the historical commission. The bill would apply to monuments and memorials on public property, including local- and state-owned land.
The issue comes less than a year after several politicians, including Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., called for the removal of the Forrest bust from the Capitol. Their calls came after a white man killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C..
In the aftermath of the shooting, South Carolina lawmakers finally voted to remove a Confederate battle flag from statehouse grounds. The flag, a symbol that many see as racist, flew first above the Capitol and later near a Confederate memorial on statehouse grounds for 54 years.
TN leaders: Remove Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from Capitol
On Thursday, the Tennessee House voted 71-23 to pass the new legislation. Several African-American lawmakers expressed concerns during the floor debate.
Rep. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, said he thought the bill was insensitive. "I think we are really endorsing some criminal acts that took place years ago," he said.
Shaw said he doesn't believe there is justice for everyone when there is a statue memorializing a controversial figure. "That's kind of like putting a statue of Hitler in a Jewish community," he said. "I just don't think that's a good thing to do."
Rep. Larry Miller, D-Memphis, wondered what would happen if someone flew a Confederate flag on public grounds and the local government tried to remove it. McDaniel said if a flag was put in place legally, which he said is unlikely with the Confederate flag, anyone seeking to remove the flag would need approval from the historical commission.
Miller concluded his questioning of McDaniel by asking about the racial and gender breakdown of those serving on the commission. Although McDaniel conceded he did not know the exact breakdown, he did point out that the chairman of the commission — Reavis Mitchell — is African-American.
“It’s hard for you to tell somebody else how they should feel about something when you have not experienced it,” said Rep. Harold Love, D-Nashville, who stressed the importance of what he referred to as cultural competency.
“What’s more important sometimes? Preserving history for the sake of reminding folks of what we’ve gone through that’s negative or doing the hard task of maybe taking down something to show that we have moved on?” he said.
Despite the concerns of his colleagues, Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, said the issue was not about racial insensitivity but rather about preserving history.
During his defense of the bill, Faison said he recently attended "Motown The Musical," a current production at Andrew Jackson Hall in Nashville, which he said included a portion that highlighted the Freedom Fighters, the men and women involved in the fight for racial equality during the 1950s and 1960s.
“There are some amazing strides that have taken place in our country,” he said, noting that there is a stain on American history because of the treatment of African-Americans. But Faison said it would be erroneous and wrong to act like that part of history didn’t happen.
"I would encourage this body to look at this as not a thing that we're trying to preserve racism," Faison said. "We're preserving the history that we grew from. The history that we learned from."
During the floor debate, the conversations briefly stalled when there was a dustup involving Reps. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, and Curry Todd, R-Germantown.
Hardaway and Todd were having a passionate discussion on the issue, when they had to be separated by others in the chamber, including Secretary of State Tre Hargett and Rep. John Mark Windle, D-Livingston.
After about 30 minutes of discussion, debate was cut off, a point that some lawmakers later expressed frustration about. Many, including Rep. Mike Stewart, D-Nashville, questioned the brisk nature of the debate, saying they would’ve preferred to spend more time discussing the issue, which now awaits action from the Senate.
Just after the bill was initially introduced Rep. Joe Towns Jr., D-Memphis, attempted to amend the bill, which would have required that anyone honored to be someone who fought for the United States. His effort failed.
McDaniel said the bill creates an “expansive process which is critical so that we don’t have kneejerk reactions when certain events happen across this country.”
The Republican previously told The Tennessean the legislation is simply about preserving the past.
After the vote, Majority Leader Gerald McCormick conceded that McDaniel drafted the bill after there was a “stampede to remove all vestiges of the old Confederacy.”
“I think there was sort of a hysteria going on there for a while,” he said, adding that history should not be erased.
Discussing Forrest, McCormick said the Forrest bust should remain in the Capitol in an effort to honor him strictly for his military service.
Reach Joel Ebert at 615-259-8379 and on Twitter @joelebert29.