Right: A montage of images from Saturday.
Saturday will definitely go down in Memphis history as the day that Rev. Al Sharpton came to town in support of an effort to rebury a vintage Confederate hero elsewhere.
Those Memphians who welcomed Sharpton – prominently including Rev. LaSimba Grey and the Bailey brothers, Circuit Court Judge D’Army and Shelby County Commissioner Walter – want it to go down also as the day the Confederacy itself began to be reburied in the swamp of historical oblivion.
Speaking at Forrest Park under the statue of the legendary Confederate military commander whom he persisted in calling “Nathan Bedford Foster,” Sharpton made common cause with his local hosts in calling for the removal of the general’s grave and statute from the park which bears his name. Sharpton promised to return “again and again” and to focus attention on “Memphis as {a} national example” until the entire South would be forced to renounce the last vestiges of the Confederacy.
Though he declined, both during his remarks and in an interview afterward, to mention Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton by name, Sharpton heaped scorn on those black leaders who, like Herenton, have distanced themselves from the local effort to remove the Forrest presence from the park and to rename it as well as Confederate Park and Jefferson Davis Park..
Several pro-Confederate groups had promised to rally at Confederate Park against this effort, but only a relative handful showed up Saturday morning. One other gathering on Saturday, at the monthly Dutch Treat Luncheon in East Memphis, focused on the parks matter, with two city councilmen, E.C. Jones and Myron Lowery, joining businessman Karl Schledwitz and Shelby County historian Ed Williams in discussing a number of different approaches to the controversy. Sharpton himself made a brief appearance Saturday at a luncheon meeting of local Democratic women.
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READER RESPONSES:
It seems to me that folks of all color should wake up and see what is happening to our country’s history and heritage. Forget the politicians who make a living stirring up controversy and creating problems where there are none.
If you people up north think you are ” exempt ” from these radical attempts to destroy all things ” anglo “, consider the push to have the ” Minute Man ” removed from the campus of a college in Boston or the word ” Celtic” removed from public display due to being divisive and insulting to blacks ( or so the likes of Jackson and Sharpton claim ). In the not so distant future, you will see a push for all symbols of our American icons such as Washington, Jefferson, Hancock ( yes, John Hancock was a northerner, and his brother prospered in the slave trade ), St. Patrick’s Day, or anything else that may be considered devisive or insulting to blacks. Due to the support Jesse and Al have gathered from the guilty ” white ” Southerner or the
” holier than thou ” liberal’s, north and south, many feel they are
justified in their claims and rush to support them. This is only the beginning
I am afraid…..
When will all of you take your heads out of the sand
and support ALL things American, whether North, South, Confederate ( they are American’s
too ), Native Americans or Martin Luther King ? Perhaps many of us
are insulted by being ” profiled ” as racist due to our white skin,
Southern birth, and JUST maybe display a Confederate flag ? This too is just as
devisive and insulting.
What happens when they want to re-name Washington, DC. due to it being named
after George Washington ? Just wondering……
Pam
Tampa, Fl. (8-15)
I have heard that Tennessee SCV Commander Butler ordered his
“troops” to stand down. Apparently he told his guys that they’d
be playing right into Sharpton’s hand to come out with their flags….that
somehow he’d make them look bad.
I wanted to come but was unable to make the trip from
Tuscaloosa. However, as a League of the South member, I sure wanted
to. I personally feel the SCV should have been there. I’d like your
opinion on the subject.
Mary Jean Allen
Tuscaloosa, Al.
fitpitcher@bellsouth.net
(8-15)
Hey
Al Sharpton ! How`s Tawana Brawley doing ? Why were you not prosecuted &
sent to prison for that piece of kniving & lying you put her up to ? Billy
E. Price 26249 Hwy. 411 Ashville, Al. 35953 Ph. 1-205-594-4328 (8-15)
To
Whom It May Concern:
07-25-2005
Mayor Herenton,
I’m David Lamb in Murfreesboro Tennessee. I am a member of the Camp 33,
Sons of Confederate Veterans in Murfreesboro Tennessee. I am sending
this letter to you and carbon copies to other elected officials in the
State of Tennessee. I visited Memphis the weekend of July 22-24,2005 and
was appalled at the condition of the Nathan Bedford Forrest Park. I was
greeted there by a well dressed black man that was very disgruntled with
the Memphis Mayor that had according to him served several terms in
office. I had never heard of you or had any reason to even really care
until now. I know, Sir, that to serve several terms then you have done
something very right. The park I mentioned where Mr. Forrest is buried
was well littered with trash, the benches were bent and being destroyed,
there was even a shopping buggy turned upside down and crushed within
site of the monument of Forrest.
As you know Nathan Bedford Forrest was
one of the greatest Generals of all time. This piece of history is
undeniable. Sir I respectfully ask that your City be responsible and
dignified enough to not change the name of this park, and not to
consider re-interring this world famous General who has already been
moved and desecrated once that I know of. I would also ask that this
park be cleaned up of the litter and the loiterers. There were at least
4 people sleeping or passed out in the park on Sunday July 24,2005 as
the temperature was near 100*. These were very definitely vagrants or
were they simply there to intimidate the Good Southern People that would
Love to visit this Internationally known Burial Place?
I am very alarmed
that we no longer have the audacity to stand up for what is right
without fear of retaliation or embarrassment. It doesn’t matter, Sir, who
is buried where, it matters in America that they and their ancestors
have the God Given right to Rest In Peace. Not to be moved from place to
place and not to have the memories and monuments destroyed or defaced. I
don’t know where Dr. Martin Luther King is buried Mayor but I for one
will be the first to Yell form the Rooftops if a group was forming to
re-inter or destroy his final resting place. I love what was said in the
Cool Hand Luke movie. “Calling it your job Boss don’t make it right”.
Mayor down by the river bank are two other parks. I was pleased to see
the nice signs that marked at least the Jefferson Davis Park. I cannot
believe that today in the year 2005 we have people that are so twisted
and sick even in high offices, that would attempt and even succeed in
trying to conceal or twist our History in this Great Country.
There is probably nothing I could tell you about these Great Men that are and
have been Honored in Memphis Tennessee for near or more than 100 years
that you don’t already know, so I will not attempt to do so.
Enough is enough. It is simply not acceptable to continue to allow the destruction the lies that continue to plague the Heritage of the
Confederate States of America and the ancestors of these men. The Honor of these men that fought and died for their Country, Family, Beliefs, and Friends, should not be concealed or hidden or destroyed. One monument at a time one flag at a time this has been going on for as long
as you and I can remember. The two parks by the riverfront were much
cleaner and maintained I must say. Even on Sunday I witnessed a sweeper
or vacuum machine in the lower park.
Sir, I again ask that the names of these parks not be changed. It is a disgrace to Memphis Tennessee and all who would participate in changing the names of these parks for even considering such a thing. We both know that when the American Public
stands up and targets changing any of the streets, parks, memorials to
Dr King then many of the African Americans and others would be greatly
offended as we Good Southern Americans and Sympathizers are offended by
the desecration of our Heritage one monument, one flag, one TRUTH at a
time.
I close this letter Sir with one last plea: May God himself speak to every Heart that reads this letter and pour his Great Spirit out to protect the Truth’s of the past. Not to be destroyed by a race, color, creed.
My Plea is: Please do not allow either of the Parks in question to be renamed or destroyed at the hands of any one or anything outside an act of God
Almighty himself.
Sincerely,
David W. Lamb
David W. Lamb
PO Box 1445
Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 37133-1445 (8-15)
