MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — One of the smaller buildings on the Middle Tennessee State University campus is still creating some of the most controversy.
MTSU president Sidney McPhee let the community know the Tennessee Historical Commission denied the university's request to change the name of the building. This is the second time the commission has done so. Back in 2018, the university asked for the first time. In 2015, McPhee appointed a task force to review the building’s name following a mass shooting at a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Forrest is named for Nathan B. Forrest, most ubiquitously known as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan after he served as a general to the Confederacy in the Civil War.
"We presented very compelling justification for this second request, reflecting the importance of fostering a diverse campus environment that is welcoming to all," McPhee said. "Citing previous actions and decisions by the commission, we made a strong case that our request was consistent with state and federal law, as well as recent rulings of the commission, and was reflective of the contemporary values we hold dear as a society. I felt that our request was deserving of the commission’s full consideration and support. Unfortunately, following a brief discussion by the commission, the waiver was denied."
Confederate symbolism has been controversial for years in Tennessee. Protests raged in the Tennessee Capitol to remove the bust of Forrest, which eventually came down in 2021. A Forrest statue off of Interstate 65 also came down after it was vandalized with hot pink paint splattered across it.
Forrest Hall is the Army and ROTC building at MTSU. During the time of student protests, it created such a stir that Auburn University professor Connor Towne O'Neill included the saga in his book about Forrest.
MTSU hasn't been unaffected by violence on campus in terms of white supremacy.
In the 1970s, two crosses were torched on the campus in the same week. Two years before that, editorials ran in the student newspaper Sidelines about why Confederate symbolism was still on the campus in 1968.
Other Forrest symbolism has been largely removed from campus, including in 1989 when a plaque of Forrest left the Keathley University Center. Confederate symbols were also removed from MTSU merchandise in the 1970s.
Lingering now is still just Forrest's name on the building.
"I am deeply disappointed by the action, or some might say inaction, of the Tennessee Historical Commission," McPhee said. "In failing to recognize how the naming of this building serves as a painful reminder to many in our community of a blighted period in our history, they ignored their own rationale, crafted in 2021 to justify removing Forrest’s bust from the State Capitol, stating that taking such actions “advances the compelling public interest of racial reconciliation."
