NASHVILLE -- Tennessee's two top Republican lawmakers -- Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Beth Harwell -- have sent a joint letter to the State Capitol Commission asking the body to look into removing a state Capitol bust honoring Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
"From time to time, it is appropriate for the State of Tennessee to review which Tennesseans are honored and in what location and manner," Ramsey and Harwell's letter says. "As Governor Bill Haslam has noted, there is a limited amount of space in the Tennessee State Capitol and on its grounds.
"Those honored in the Capitol should be those who accurately reflect the historic accomplishments of the Volunteer State and its people," the speakers said.
House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, speaks at a joint conference of the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business and the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association in Nashville on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015. The move comes as symbols of the Confederacy come under new focus and criticism following last week's slayings of nine black men and women at a historically black church by a self-avowed white supremacist and photos of him wrapping himself in a Confederate flag.
Haslam, a Republican, said Tuesday he didn't think Forrest's bust being in the Capitol was appropriate and believed the Capitol Commission should look into the situation and find another venue such as a museum.
House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, fired off a letter to the Capitol Commission saying the bust should be removed and replaced with one of Davy Crockett.
In addition to the letter, Ramsey released a separate statement saying he was worried about a "knee-jerk reaction."
"My condolences and prayers go out to all the families and communities affected by the mass murder in Charleston," Ramsey said. "It was a truly horrific and tragic event that will not and should not be forgotten. But the effort underway to remove the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust in our State Capitol strikes me as a knee-jerk reaction.
"Forrest was a native Tennessean widely recognized as one of history's greatest military commanders," Ramsey added. "I cannot and do not defend every action he took throughout his life but I couldn't do that for any man in history aside from Christ himself.
With the State Capitol Commission scheduled to meet Friday, Ramsey said, "whether the bust stays or goes, I am concerned that we are rapidly descending down the slippery slope of political correctness. Now more than ever it is important to keep in mind that those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it."
Forrest's legacy has been controversial. Acknowledged as a brilliant military strategist, he was a slave trader before the war and was involved in the founding of the original Ku Klux Klan although he later withdrew from the group.
Also today, Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris, D-Memphis, and Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Jeff Yarbro of Nashville wrote the speakers later urging them to get involved. A Ramsey spokesman said the two speakers' letter was already in the works prior to that.