Tennessee Senate and Sons of Confederate Veterans member Douglas Henry, a Democrat representing the 21st Senate District in Davidson County, first proposed a resolution in the Tennessee General Assembly calling for a bust of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest to be installed within the state capitol, which passed on April 13, 1973. Forrest has been considered by many to be an iconic Southern hero of the American Civil War because of his reported military exploits, including his saving "Rome from a raid by Union military.” Presently, Forrest is perhaps better known for his infamous antebellum career selling people into slavery, financing the Confederate troops under his command during the Civil War from his vast wealth made off the slave trade, commanding his Confederate troops during the Massacre at Fort Pillow, and his eventual role as the Grand Wizard of the first era Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction era of United States history. Fundraising for the bust was from the sale of 24" x 30" reproductions of a Forrest portrait at the Travellers Rest, a historic plantation in the Nashville area. The portrait by Joy Garner had been commissioned in 1973 for Travellers Rest by the Joseph E. Johnston camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The bust was eventulally designed by Loura Jane Herndon Baxendale, whose husband Albert Hatcher Baxendale, Jr., was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The Nathan Bedford Forrest bust was cast by the Karkadoulias Bronze Art Foundry in Cincinnati and installed in the Tennessee State Capitol on November 5, 1978.
Protests
On the day of the bust's dedication, numerous African Americans protested at the capitol. More protests were organized by Black Tennesseans for Action in February 1979 after they were unsuccessful in gaining a meeting with Governor Lamar Alexander to discuss the issue. That month, the bust was "damaged after someone struck it in the head with a blunt object". Soon after, two crosses were burned in Nashville, a symbolic intimidation associated with the historic Ku Klux Klan; one of the crosses was burned outside the NAACP headquarters. In October 1980, "Tex Moore, grand dragon of the Tennessee chapter of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and others held a news conference in front of the bust." In the wake of the 2015 Charleston church shooting, in which nine African Americans were murdered by a young white supremacist, Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper and state RepresentativeCraig Fitzhugh suggested Forrest's bust should be removed from the Tennessee capitol. Republican Governor Bill Haslam and Senator Bob Corker also agreed. However, its removal was postponed. After the violence of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Governor Bill Haslam explicitly called for removal of the bust from the capitol, while Senator Corker suggested it should be moved to the Tennessee State Museum. But the Capitol Commission oversees elements of maintaining the complex. Composed of Secretary of StateTre Hargett, State Treasurer David Lillard, and Comptroller Justin P. Wilson, the Commission voted to reject the removal. Governor Haslam said that he was "very disappointed" with this decision. In December 2017 a legislative bill was proposed to relocate the bust to the Tennessee State Museum. In January 2019 the members of the State Capitol Commission turned down a request to remove the bust by a 7 to 5 vote. At the end of January, 2019 a group of Tennessee college students arrived at the Tennessee State capitol to request of newly elected Governor Bill Lee that the bust be removed. State troopers did not allow the students to see the governor because they did not have an appointment, but they did manage to meet with a representative from his office. On June 9, 2020, the Tennessee General Assembly debated HJR 0686 to remove the bust. Republican support for it to remain led to the motion failing in the House by five votes to eleven.
Removal from Capitol
On July 9, 2020, the Tennessee Capitol Commission voted 9-2 in favor of removing the bust from the Capitol building and relocating it to the Tennessee State Museum. The process to remove the statue is lengthy, and removal will likely not take place until 2021.
