FifthColumn
Rookie
- Jan 11, 2011
- 334
- 19
- 0
- Banned
- #1
JACKSON, Miss. A fight is brewing in Mississippi over a proposal to issue specialty license plates honoring Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Mississippi Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans wants to sponsor a series of state-issued license plates to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which it calls the "War Between the States." The group proposes a different design each year between now and 2015, with Forrest slated for 2014.
"Seriously?" state NAACP president Derrick Johnson said when he was told about the Forrest plate. "Wow."
Forrest, a Tennessee native, is revered by some as a military genius and reviled by others for leading the 1864 massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tenn. Forrest was a Klan grand wizard in Tennessee after the war.
Sons of Confederate Veterans member Greg Stewart said he believes Forrest distanced himself from the Klan later in life. It's a point many historians agree upon, though some believe it was too little, too late, because the Klan had already turned violent before Forrest left.
License plate proposed to honor KKK leader - U.S. news - Life - Race & ethnicity - msnbc.com#
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And yet it is OK for Mexicans to revere Pancho Vila, who killed helpless American men and women on his raids into the US?
What about the Indians chiefs who murdered American settlers and immigrants? Indian heads were on the nickel for years.
Nathan Bedford Forrest is a part of American history, like it or not. He's one of the South's greatest generals. That is fact.
The Mississippi Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans wants to sponsor a series of state-issued license plates to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which it calls the "War Between the States." The group proposes a different design each year between now and 2015, with Forrest slated for 2014.
"Seriously?" state NAACP president Derrick Johnson said when he was told about the Forrest plate. "Wow."
Forrest, a Tennessee native, is revered by some as a military genius and reviled by others for leading the 1864 massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tenn. Forrest was a Klan grand wizard in Tennessee after the war.
Sons of Confederate Veterans member Greg Stewart said he believes Forrest distanced himself from the Klan later in life. It's a point many historians agree upon, though some believe it was too little, too late, because the Klan had already turned violent before Forrest left.
License plate proposed to honor KKK leader - U.S. news - Life - Race & ethnicity - msnbc.com#
------------------------------------------------------
And yet it is OK for Mexicans to revere Pancho Vila, who killed helpless American men and women on his raids into the US?
What about the Indians chiefs who murdered American settlers and immigrants? Indian heads were on the nickel for years.
Nathan Bedford Forrest is a part of American history, like it or not. He's one of the South's greatest generals. That is fact.