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Region News: Tennessee Capitol Commission to take up Forrest bust removal

Tennessee State Troopers stand near a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest after protesters covered it and placed signs in front of it Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. Protesters called for the removal of the bust, which is displayed in the hallway outside the House and Senate chambers. Violence in Virginia this weekend has given rise to a new wave of efforts to remove or relocate Confederate monuments. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) Tennessee State Troopers stand near a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest after protesters covered it and placed signs in front of it Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. Protesters called for the removal of the bust, which is displayed in the hallway outside the House and Senate chambers. Violence in Virginia this weekend has given rise to a new wave of efforts to remove or relocate Confederate monuments. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

By Staff and Wire Reports August 30, 2017 4 min read

Tennessee Capitol Commission to take up Forrest bust removal

NASHVILLE – Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s call to remove a bust of a Confederate cavalry general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol building is getting its first hearing this week.

The State Capitol Commission is scheduled to meet on Friday to consider Haslam’s renewed request to relocate the bust. It’s the first step in a lengthy process laid out by Tennessee’s “Heritage Protection Act.”

Haslam first called for the bust’s removal after the 2015 slayings of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., and again after this month’s deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Forrest amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader in Memphis before the Civil War. His bust at the state Capitol was unveiled in 1978.