MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “That’s a good point that you’re raising because it’s a question; because in the south the majority of those prominent figures, some way had something to do with slavery,” said City Council member Berlin Boyd.
Boyd admitted there were a lot of leaders in history that today would be considered racists.
“I think it’s one of those fine lines and say what are we going to accept and not accept,” he said.
Last night City Council unanimously voted it no longer wanted the Confederate general and former Ku Klux Klan leader, Nathan Bedford Forrest to sit in the Health Sciences Park.
“It has that negative connotation and the park is sitting there right next to UT. It’s sitting there in a prime area right on Union Avenue,” said Boyd.
Just a few miles away stands another prominent leader of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, a leader of the Confederate Army and slaveholder.
There has been plenty of talk about Forrest’s monument, but not Davis’s.
So we asked why?
“This is no ordinary monument,” said Mayor A C Wharton.
When questioned about removing the statue a few weeks ago and not others, Mayor A C Wharton called it “splitting historic hairs.”
“I think there’s a distinct difference between an admitted founder of the KKK and those who pursued a military cause,” he said.
Today we found Solomon Craft at the Health Sciences Park.
“You get kinda mixed emotions about it,” said Craft.
He said he sees both sides of the issue, but said the bigger issue surrounding the statue won’t be solved with a move.
“I think it’s gonna start a chain of events that can’t be solved by moving statues and bodies. We’re gonna have to deal with the real underlying issue of racism in America,” he said.