NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A statue of Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest is now in pieces after demolition crews tore it down from its perch in Middle Tennessee alongside I-65 in the Crieve Hall neighborhood of Nashville Tuesday morning.
For more than 20 years, a man named Bill Dorris had kept the controversial Tennessee general's statue up on his private property in plain view of the interstate along with flags representing the Confederate states. Dorris died in November 2020.
The statue and display was erected in the late 1990s. Dorris had said he purposely placed the statue in plain view to remind Tennesseans and visitors of the area’s history.
Many in the Nashville area disagreed and wanted the statue out of plain view for several reasons -- either because they felt it celebrated Forrest's history as a slave trader and KKK leader, or because they felt the statue was unpleasant to look at when driving by.
The statue was the target of vandalism over the years -- including someone painting it pink in 2017 and another person leaving the word “monster” on the side of Forrest's horse in 2020.
Metro Nashville Councilmembers attempted to block the view of the statue from the interstate years ago by passing a resolution urging the Tennessee Department of Transportation to plant shrubbery along that section of the interstate, but TDOT said it did not approve of the resolution at the time.
In July 2021, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee voted along with four others on the Tennessee State Building Commission to remove a similarly controversial bust of Forrest and two other Civil War figures inside the state capitol building. The bus has since been moved to the Tennessee State Museum.
Lee also called on the legislature to end state recognition of Nathan Bedford Forrest Day in 2020, which state law directed Tennessee's governor to issue a yearly proclamation celebrating Forrest. Lawmakers later passed an amended law that removed the requirement for the governor to issue the yearly proclamations, but kept Nathan Bedford Forrest Day in the state's list of ceremonial holidays and special observances alongside Robert E. Lee Day and Confederate Decoration Day.
In September, Middle Tennessee State University voted unanimously in favor of gaining permission from the state to remove Nathan Bedford Forrest’s name from its Army ROTC building.