Swapping out a Ku Klux Klan figure for Dolly Parton?
That's the brainstorm of one Memphis, Tenn., politician who believes the time is now to remove a statue from the Nashville Capitol of Nathan Bedford Forrest and replace it with the 73-year-old singer/actress superstar, reported the Nashville Tennessean.
G.A. Hardaway, a Democrat of the Tennessee House of Representatives, wondered aloud why imagery of Forrest, who was involved in the 1864 massacre at the state's Fort Pillow, was present in the state capital but there were nothing honoring any of the state's females. In the Battle of Fort Pillow, Confederates massacred black Union troops and their white officers as they reportedly surrendered.
"How about getting a lady in there?" asked the 65-year-old politician. "My daughter is 16, and I would love for her to come into the Capitol and see a lady up there."
After offering up Anne Dallas Dudley _ a 19th-century suffrage activist _ as a possible option, Hardaway mentioned Parton, who was born in Pittman Center, Tenn.
"What's wrong with someone like Dolly Parton being put in that alcove?" said the pol.
State Rep. Jeremy Faison, chairman of the House Republic Caucus, favors the removal of the Forrest bust and believes it belongs in a museum.
"I fundamentally reject any notion by someone saying that moving him to the museum is trying to whitewash history," said Faison. "If we want to preserve history, then let's tell it the right way. Right now there are eight alcoves (in the Capitol). Seven are filled with white men."
Faison, the descendant of Confederate colonel Paul Faison, claimed Hardaway swayed him to change his thinking about Forrest after Hardaway insisted he read about the 19th-century leader's racist ideology.
