NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — While it will take months before the final vote on whether or not to remove the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from the State Capitol, Tennessee State Museum officials say they have "started the conversation."
Executive director Ashley Howell said while historical context is key, formalizing some type of plan right now is still too early. The State Capitol Commission voted to move the controversial bust to the museum last week, a day after Governor Bill Lee recommended to get it out of the Capitol.
The Tennessee Historical Commission will make the ultimate decision on the future of the monument. Under the Heritage Protection Act, relocating the bust would need a two-thirds vote by the 29-member commission. Members must wait at least 60 days before starting a hearing on the matter, but the whole process will likely take months to inform and hear from groups and review proposed amendments.
If the bust is approved, it would come after weeks of protest from community advocates and previous attempts over the years.
The process to determine what to do with the bust at the museum will require input not just from the museum and its scholars, but outside historians as well.
"We would engage scholars at universities across the state and historians and look at that process and look at it in terms of the visitor. The size and scale is very different than it would be in a museum space, so we would take all of these factors and put that as part of the plan," Howell said.
The museum covers 13,000 years of Tennessee history in chronological order which includes the controversial Confederate general. Forrest is represented in different galleries on the floor including the Civil War and Reconstruction exhibit. The museum highlights his military career and dark past such as the Battle of Fort Pillow, where Forrest led a massacre on primarily surrendered African American Union soldiers.
The museum also showcased Forrest's role as a slave trader and his influence as being the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
"Museums are the place where we can discuss the good things and the bad things about Tennessee history," Howell added.
Howell hoped if the bust relocated that it will fit with how Forrest's life is already being interpreted at the museum. Options include putting the bust in the more recent gallery post-1945 since it was commissioned and installed in the 1970s. If approved, the bust could also be moved to the military branch museum at War Memorial Plaza.
The Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators expressed concerns after the Capitol Commission vote that the bust would be represented as a hero. Chair G.A. Hardaway said, "Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Confederate soldier; he is neither a Tennessee hero, nor an American hero. Heroes are men and women of high character and noble deeds, whose lives were representative of the common values shared by the people of The Great State of Tennessee."
The caucus will seek advice from its legal counsel and further clarification from the principals involved, including the Capitol Commission, the Historical Commission and the Tennessee State Museum on this subject. Howell said their concerns would be addressed.
"We're a community museum. Our visitors are important to us so I think it's important that we think about that experience for our visitors in terms of our interpretation," she added.
