Now the family of Confederate General and KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest are getting into the fray over the removal of the statue over his grave almost one year ago.
Even though the actual graves of Forrest and his wife were never touched descendants say it’s caused them emotional distress and they’re suing the city.
The suit names Mayor Jim Strickland and all 13 members of the Memphis City Council at the time of the statues’ removal from two city parks on December 20th of last year.
There’s been little to no dialogue between the plaintiffs and defendants with all this fueled by the pain of the distant and recent past.
Lee Millar with the Sons of Confederate Veterans is also named as a collateral family member of Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife.
He says the Forrests view the big statue of the general and the bodies underneath as a gravesite, all of it.
The bodies are still there.
“General Forrest and Mrs. Forrest are buried directly under the statue, so the statue constitutes the headstone for the graves, for the both of them,” said Millar.
The couple was moved from their first gravesite at Elmwood Cemetery in 1904, although a statue never existed until a year after the graves were moved.
Millar says in 1904 it was the family’s decision, but when the statue was removed last year it was different even emotional for Forrest’s great-grandsons listed in the lawsuit filed this week.
“To have the city come in and Green Space come in and tear that all up is pretty distressing,” said Millar.
Van Turner’s nonprofit Memphis Green Space bought the statues and still has them in a secret place.
He says this lawsuit was to be expected.
Attorney’s for the city say they are prepared to fight it and said in a statement:
Every oversight body, including the courts and state comptroller, has found our actions to be lawful or appropriate. We expect the same outcome in this case.
Millar says his organization and the Forrest family are just as determined.
“We’re in it for as long as it takes,” said Millar.
The family wants money not just for what it says is damage to the gravesite, but also emotional distress.
Ultimately, they want the statue put back in the park.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans sent the following news release on the lawsuit to Local 24:
A group of Descendant members of the family of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and wife Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest have filed suit in Chancery Court in Shelby County against the City of Memphis, Memphis City Council and Memphis Greenspace Inc., and others, over the defendants’ actions leading to desecration of the gravesite of General and Mrs. Forrest in Forrest Park in downtown Memphis.
The Forrest family group, including five of the great-great grandsons of General Forrest, state in the complaint that the defendants, including the individual city council members and city mayor and other individuals, willfully and knowingly conspired to, and did in fact, desecrate the graves and headstone monument of N. B. Forrest and wife Mary Ann Forrest in December 2017 by the defendants’ illegal removal of the monument and other actions.
The Forrest family complaint notes that the defendants violated several sections of state law in the Tennessee Code Annotated, as well as the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, dealing with historic sites, cemeteries, burial sites, headstones/monuments and more. The family seeks the repair and re-installation of the Forrest Equestrian Monument as the headstone of the graves and other remedies.
The remains of General and Mrs. Forrest were re-interred into Forrest Park in November 1904 and the Forrest Equestrian Statue and monument was erected over the graves and dedicated in May 1905. The site continues to be a cemetery and gravesite today.
City of Memphis Chief Legal Officer Bruce McMullen released the following statement:
We have anticipated this lawsuit and are prepared to defend our actions. Every oversight body, including the courts and state comptroller, has found our actions to be lawful or appropriate. We expect the same outcome in this case. The City sold Health Sciences and Memphis parks to Memphis Greenspace, legally.
