A bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest is displayed in the Tennessee State Capitol Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)NASHVILLE – Upset by the Tennessee Historical Commission’s March 8 vote to remove the state Capitol’s bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, some GOP legislators are pushing to cancel appointments of all 29 commissioners on the panel – members who were mostly named by Republican Gov. Bill Lee.
Instead, the reconstituted commission would be reduced to 12 members, and Lee would have four picks. Fellow Republicans Senate Speaker Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton would also get four appointments each.
Senate Government Operations Committee members last week voted 5-4 to give Senate Bill 600 a “positive” recommendation, signaling support for the commission changes. Sponsored by Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, the bill says the current 29-person board’s membership would be “vacated” and replaced with the 12 new appointees.
“In our culture today, it seems there is a desire to cancel history, cancel culture, cancel narratives that are just based on fact. I think that that’s a dangerous precedent,” said Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, in supporting the overhaul.
McNally and Sexton have opposed the removal of the bust of Forrest, who after the war became the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The speakers are still awaiting a response to their request for a legal opinion from Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery on whether the removal question should have to come before the State Building Commission. Slatery, however, could bow out rather than offer his office’s legal view of a dispute between two branches of government.