NASHVILLE - Gov. Bill Lee says he believes Tennessee officials "have an opportunity to find common ground" to resolve the ongoing battle over whether a bust honoring controversial Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest should continue occupying prime state Capitol real estate.
But the Republican governor indicated during a Times Free Press interview he isn't yet ready to embrace a GOP legislative leader's suggestions that Forrest's bust might be replaced with one of music legend Dolly Parton.
"You know, I think I've said before and I still believe that there needs to be a broad discussion on this," Lee said. "The Capitol Commission announced that they would have meetings over the next months to have those public discussions."
The governor said he thinks "we will benefit from those discussions and be able to bring people together around a subject that has a lot of disagreement. But I think we have an opportunity to find common ground."
House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison, of Newport, has publicly raised the issue of swapping out the Forrest bust with one of Parton.
"What's wrong with someone like Dolly Parton being put in that alcove?" he said to The Tennessean.
A bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest is displayed in the Tennessee State Capitol Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)Faison also said he can think of "100 other people [more] deserving of that post" than Forrest, a pre-Civil War slave trader from Tennessee and the Ku Klux Klan's first grand wizard.
Among them, Faison said, is Anne Dallas Dudley, a Nashville woman who helped successfully press Tennessee lawmakers 99 years ago to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In doing so, Tennessee became the 36th and deciding state to approve the amendment, thus giving women across the country the right to vote.
While admired for his military tactics, Forrest has long been a controversial figure. He was commander of Confederate troops during the infamous 1864 Fort Pillow Massacre in West Tennessee, during which a number of black troops were killed despite attempting to surrender, according to accounts.
Black troops made up about half the Union troops, but two-thirds of those killed were black soldiers. Forrest blamed the massacre on factors including the chaos of battle, inept Union leaders and a refusal to surrender. While the KKK's first grand wizard, Forrest later sought unsuccessfully to disband the group.
A massive bust of Forrest is located on the Capitol's second floor in an alcove outside House and Senate chambers. The bust, placed there in 1978, has been the site of numerous protests in recent years. Various efforts by officials, among them then-House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, as well as former Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, failed. Lee, who took office last January, had his own encounter with Forrest earlier this year when he signed a little remembered but mandated-by-state-law proclamation declaring July 13 as "Nathan Bedford Forrest Day." He's seeking to get the law changed.
Lee said he thinks adding additional context to Forrest "would provide a fuller story and give everyone an opportunity to know more about the history. I think the most important thing that we do is have to have broader conversation around it. I'm open to any and all conversations about that. And there will be an opportunity for that through the Capitol Commission in the coming months."
Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, said he doesn't know the future of the bust - it would be up to the Historical Commission and the Capitol Commission.
"I personally favor that if some context - a plaque that contained the history as best we can determine of Nathan Bedford Forrest - be placed up there, and maybe if the Capitol Commission would be in favor of rotation of some of the statutes, that would be fine."
A long-time fan, Lee last summer interviewed Parton during at an event before the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual conference, which was held in Nashville.
Noting that Parton was one of 12 children, the governor teased the entertainer and entrepreneur that her parents evidently "knew about the birds and the bees."
Parton replied she's been asked in the past if her family was Catholic. The folksy music and film star then came back with a quip that left religious conservative Lee blushing and audience members guffawing.
"We're just horny hillbillies," Parton said.
Reminded of that last week during the Times Free Press interview, the governor gestured to a photograph displayed on his Capitol conference room wall: "See that picture right there, that's where she put me on the spot," the governor said, chuckling. "That's one of the highlight moments of my year.
"No, I haven't talked to [Faison] about it, but I think there will be a lot of conversations, a lot of ideas from a lot of people," Lee said. "And I think that's a good thing."
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.