The Night They Drove Forrest Down

[struggle4progress]

1. How Memphis took down its Confederate statues

January 5, 2018

... Two months earlier, Mayor Jim Strickland mobilized crews and cops, putting them on standby as he spoke to the state Historical Commission on Oct. 13. He hoped to convince the commission to take the formal route for dismantling the monuments of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

But the commission thwarted that approach by rejecting the mayor‘s request, leading Strickland to take an alternative route.

As a councilman nearly five years ago, Strickland first noticed the legal loophole on which the city would build its case to remove Confederate monuments.

Strickland was in a February 2013 City Council meeting when he first read the newly-proposed Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, he recalled Thursday during an editorial board meeting at The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal. The act gave the new Historical Commission power to prevent removal of monuments on public property. But the law didn‘t forbid a city from selling the land and statues to a private entity, Strickland said ...

https://luxoraleader.com/how-memphis-took-down-its-confederate-statues/378226/