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September 13, 2012

Painting of Fort Pillow Massacre
Fort Pillow Massacre

Petition Drive Launched to Stop Enlargement of Monument to Klan Leader

Change.org is conducting an online petition drive to halt enlargement of a monument on public land honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan,  and a Confederate Army general who ordered the massacre of black Union soldiers during a Civil War battle.

The monument to Forrest is being built in Selma, Ala., but Change.org said more than 80,000 people have signed the petition in support of Malika Sanders-Fortier. She has called for the City Council to stop the construction and to remove the monument. Change.org wants to deliver the petitions to Sanders-Fortier by Friday. Click here for the website.

Tom Hanks’ character in the movie, Forrest Gump, states that he was named after his ancestor General Nathan Bedford ForrestFriends of Forrest built the original monument, but now the group is planning to lay concrete for a new foundation, install a new bust of the Klan leader, enclose the monument with a wrought iron gate and add night lighting.

Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest
The first Klan was founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six Confederate Army veterans. As the Klan’s Grand Wizard, the organization launched a reign of terror against African Americans during Reconstruction.

“Tom Hanks’ character in the movie, Forrest Gump, states that he was named after his ancestor General Nathan Bedford Forrest.”

Before leading the Klan, Forrest ordered the massacre of black Union soldiers during the Civil War battle at Fort Pillow, which was fought on April 12, 1864, on the Mississippi River in Henning, Tennessee. The soldiers were members of the 6th U.S. Regiment of Colored Heavy Artillery and a section of the 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery.

Forrest Gump Poster
Many of the soldiers were former slaves. Some Confederates had threatened to kill any black Union troops they encountered. Although the soldiers threw down their arms to surrender, Forrest ordered them slaughtered.

Despite his bloody and racist history, parks and schools throughout the South are named in his honor. Even the lead character in the In the 1994 film, Forrest Gump,Tom Hanks’ character states that he was named after his ancestor, General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Selma is home to some of the most-important events in the Civil Rights Movement, including “Bloody Sunday,” when on March 7, 1965, 600 voting-rights activists were beaten by local and state police.

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