Protesters rallied outside of the Tennessee state Capitol Wednesday after lawmakers voted to keep a bust of a Confederate basic and Ku Klux Klan leader on full display in the capitol, following arguments that removing it would eliminate history and might be offending to some.
A House committee in Nashville voted 11 to 5 Tuesday to continue displaying the bronze bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, which has endured public demonstrations and needs for its elimination given that it was put up in 1978.
Venita Lewis, who assisted arrange demonstrations outside the Capitol today, argued that keeping signs of bigotry and white supremacy on show and tell does nothing however injured existing and future generations of Black individuals.
” Hell, I don’t wish to be advised that I was a slave. I don’t want to tell my children that,” Lewis, wearing a Tee shirts reading “I will breathe,” informed a crowd on Wednesday. “We are producing bigotry and hate for the next generation. It’s not fair to you, your children and your children’s children.”
Republican legislators argued that removing the bust wasn’t the solution which it could unlock to other controversial monoliths being taken down.
Rep. Jerry Sexton (R), who voted versus the bust’s elimination, appeared to excuse the state’s history of racism.
” It was not against the law to own slaves at that time. Who understands, possibly a few of us will be servants among these days. Laws change,” Sexton, who is white, informed the legal panel. “However what about individuals that I represent, that it will anger them if we move this? They’ll be upset. They won’t like it. It doesn’t appear to matter.”
He went on to question House Democrats’ understanding of ethics, given that they support abortion.
” Who chooses what is ethical, what is right, when we’re killing countless babies every year in this country because of abortion,” Sexto