We read:
"Mississippi GOP Gov. Haley Barbour on Monday issued his strongest language yet on a state license plate honoring a Ku Klux Klan leader, telling the Associated Press he would not sign the proposal if it reached his desk.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) last week called for Barbour to condemn a proposal to create a license plate honoring Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Klan leader. Barbour refrained from formally disavowing the proposed plate, sparking controversy.
Source
Describing Forrest as a Klan leader is tendentious. He always denied membership but was influential in persuading them to disband. His influence stemmed from his brilliant performance as a general in the Confederate army and for that reason there are all sorts of things around Tennessee named after him to this day. A license plate more or less will not make much difference to that.
In his later years Forrest was notably friendly towards blacks -- And some say that he always was.
12 comments:
Likely, this is not about the Klan, but a Confederate issue. And it's really easy, but mistaken, to automatically associate the two. The problem with the current climate of Political Correctness dictates that White Americans cannot be honored because it is insensitive to the minorities, particularly the vocal black community.
History is history, and denying that it happened is one of our greatest modern travesties.
"History is history, and denying that it happened is one of our greatest modern travesties."
I agree. Just go back and see the terrible things that Nixon, Reagan and Bush2 did that have been whitewashed.
Anyone who thinks that Bedford Forrest was "friendly toward blacks" should read the history of Fort Pillow - I should say the massacre at Fort Pillow. Forrest was one of the founders of the KKK.
"I agree. Just go back and see the terrible things that Nixon, Reagan and Bush2 did that have been whitewashed.
Please add to the list the terrible things that Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, and Obama did that have been whitewashed.
So it seems a lot of US presidents did "terrible things"! So much for America as "leader of the free world"!
Fort Pillow was an act of war, by the way, Forrest had black CSA soldiers fighting for him, are they racist to?
http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/
If you want real racism, read "Lincoln's White Dream," that Yankee dictator wanted to deport all blacks to Africa.
I suppose that WV will pass on a license plate honoring Robert "KKK" Byrd? BTW all you Anonymous posters, please pick a handle so I can figure out who's on first, what's on second, I don't know is on third, etc...
Fort Pillow was an act of war,....
Shooting unarmed men that had surrendered is not an act of war. It is an act of barbarity.
Forrest had black CSA soldiers fighting for him, are they racist to?
Forrest took his slaves with him to war. He explained that if they fought and the south lost, they would be freed. If they fought and the south won, he would free them.
Once again, this is a case of someone making a choice that benefits them. The men could either serve and be free (either through outcome or death) or remains slaves.
Forrest was a brilliant commander. There is little doubt of that. However, his views on race are seen in his actions. He either founded or supported the founding of the KKK. He supported the actions of the KKK, including the hanging of blacks and innocent people until he felt it was no longer politically feasible to be associated with the Klan.
Whether the Klan was too violent for him is a topic of discussion and disputable. What is not in dispute is his support of the group and their actions.
Are you kidding me? Woodrow Wilson was one of the worst racists of the 20th Century. Let's go on the warpath (uh-oh not PC!), let's expunge all references to that son-of-a-b*tch, too.
Nathan Bedford Forrest was a slave owner and trader.
Nathan Bedford Forrest, by word and deed and before witnesses, commited treason against the United States.
Nathan Bedford Forrest did, by the testinony of his own troops in letters home to their famalies, direct the continued slaughter of surrendering United States forces at Fort Pillow. This is, at the very least, a court martial offence for which commanders have been hung in the past.
Nathan Bedford Forrest joined the KKK in 1867. It functioned as a terrorist organization that intimidated, attacked, and killed non-white and republican United States citizens in an effort to win through terror what they could not achive on the battlefield.
He was a scumbag that should have been hung after the war along with Davis and the rest of the Confederate government and general grade officers.
You lost, get over it, move on.
whiners...
The NAALCP needs to be disbanded and its leaders sent to live on another planet far away from our own galaxy
The NAACP is nothing more than organized (and govt subsidized) racism. Can you imagine what would be said if there were,
National Assoc. for the Advancement of White people?
Congressional White caucus?
And on, and on, and on...
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