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HISTORY LESSON

Memphis Renames Three Confederate-Themed Parks

City moved fast before the state legislature could block the changes

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by Lisa Fine

Staff Writer t +

Image: AP

The Memphis City Council moved quickly this week to rename three parks that honor the Confederacy before state legislators could block the changes.

Confederate Park will now be Memphis Park. Jefferson Davis Park, named after the president of the Confederacy, becomes Mississippi River Park. Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, named after a Confederate general, slave trader and grand wizard in the Ku Klux Klan, will now be known as Health Sciences Park. The changes will be temporary until a newly formed committee helps the council decide on permanent names for the parks, USA TODAY wrote.

On Tuesday, the council voted to pass the measure, which typically would have required three hearings. That's because state lawmakers are considering a bill called the "Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013" that would prohibit such name changes to parks honoring military figures, USA TODAY reports.

"We should cherish the history that we have, we shouldn't cover it up and try to bury it or hide it," said Becky Muska, who spoke against the name change at the council meeting, Fox News reports.

Kennith Van Buren, a civil rights advocate, supports the name changes, Fox reports. "These three parks have a racial history that should be erased," Van Buren said. "These parks are an embarrassment to our city."

Via USA TODAY and Fox News

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264 Comments (view in Forum)

  • jessejaymes
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    You do not teach history by glorifying slave traders, leaders of the KKK and such. History belongs in History books when that history is of abhorrent behavior. Naming a park after Forrest is little different than naming a park after Hitler.
  • OhWiseOne
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    @jessejaymes You have your heroes and I have mine. MLK and Obama doesn't make my list. OTOH, Forrest and Davis are right there at the top.

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  • PNWest
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    Good for Memphis. There should be no public parks, buildings or anything else honoring anything about the Confederacy. The Confederacy only existed to support slavery and to make war with the United States. If the Confederacy was so great how come you never see the descendants of slaves flying the Stars and Bars?
  • frigginhell
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    I have no problem with conferate park or Jefferson Davis park. You want to remember that you're losers, fine. Jefferson Davis was an important figure in this countries history and the war did happen. Confederate Park is just funny because you could just as well call it got our asses kicked park or broke ain't got no cash and need welfare from the north to keep us going park. Confederate works though, we all know what it means.
    The Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, that could be changed. He is not worth glorifying in any fashion. Want to put him in a book about the war or the history of the KKK and racism in this country, fine. He's not worthy of having a public space named in his honor.
  • GmanGSW
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    @frigginhell
    Agree with you there. I think that Nathan Bedford Forrest was a gifted Confederate general in the American Civil War, but he also helped to start the KKK in the Antibellum years. Helping start the KKK destroys his "giftedness" as a general. Now, an argument could be made regarding the state's right, should they want to keep Forrest's name on the park, but I think that Federal civil liberty's laws, and then some, trump his name for a park name out anyway. Heck, what about Jefferson Davis park? Eh, keep the 1st two, trash the 3rd...
  • SuperBeast
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    The war wasnt about slavery. History is written by tyrants who hang heroes, and your opinion is a prime example of it.

    Do you believe that the Civil War would'nt have happened if the Confederacy would have abolished slavery before the beginning of the war? It still would have happened. The north didnt want to lose the south because THIS is where 85% of their money was. The war was about money and greed.

    And yes, you will find some black people flying the stars and bars. Not many, but some. There were over 50,000 black people who served for the CSA, and their decendants know the true meaning of that flag.
  • SuperBeast
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    @GmanGSW General Forrest helping to start, and being a Grand Wizard in the KKK isnt proven. The KKK wasnt a the same organization that it is today, when it first started. When first started, it was mainly to help protect what was left of the south while the Union was still ransacking, murdering, and raping...post war. Today it is just about race and it is filled with degenerates.

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  • Quantummist
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    Like The Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Madison Center, The National Monument to the Forefathers.... Like those monuments to traitors?
  • Quantummist
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    @AceLuby ... You didn't say against America now did you.... Then we have to ask why are only those states that supported the Union America, when under the Constitution such uprising against the existing government by the States is Authorized, is considered America.... Could not the States that sought to fight the North as told to do so by the countries founders when tyranny was faced, and Won, have claimed that Lincoln and Grant were the treasonous ones...
  • AceLuby
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    @Quantummist Last time I checked we were Americans. Why would I care about people who committed treason against another country?
  • AceLuby
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    @Quantummist

    trea·son
    /ˈtrēzən/
    Noun
    The crime of betraying one's country, esp. by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.

    tyr·an·ny
    /ˈtirənē/
    Noun
    Cruel and oppressive government or rule.
    A nation under such cruel and oppressive government.

    How is it tyranny to give people the freedom they were born with, but denied by the slave owners? Then explain how Lincoln was trying to overthrow the govt.

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  • DARSB
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    When I lived in Memphis in the 1970s it bothered me no end that defeated Confederates had public spaces honoring their memories but the city couldn't find the funds or the gumption to restore the statue of W. C. Handy.
  • OhWiseOne
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    @DARSB I didn't see Memphis in the 70s but I have seen what it looks like now. I would definitely bet the crime rate is higher now.

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  • Warrior_Judge
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    Naming a park after the Confederacy does not relive history. It honors the past. That is exactly what is is, the past. Are they going to rename MLK Blvd?? I doubt it. But it's OK to wipe out southern heritage?? I don't think so. You can't erase the past by renaming it. And I don't have to be politically correct. That being said, I don't owe anyone a bloody thing. Put the names back the way they were
  • Lonesomedove51
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    I think it would be politically correct if we had a Confederate history month very much akin to Black History month.Maybe we could also get reperations from the Union Army that burned our homes and crops.Wouldnt that be fair?
  • Cheenoguy
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    Maybe we could just call it "Traitor Month". We could speak of the CSA right alongside Benedict Arnold, Cold War Spies, and American members of the Taliban. Don't want your home and crops treating like kindling? Don't commit treason.

    Open a history book. Look at the vast majority mentioned. Do you see one thing they have in common? That's right, they are mostly white people. That's the reason why we have black history month and not white history month. Every month is white history month. If we started teaching our kids about the contributions of black people to history we wouldn't need a month designated for it.
  • Newsdoctor
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    The Civil War is the wound that never heals, as is obvious in these comments -- many of which are deeply offensive. But we can't stop trying to erase the misguided glorification of enablers of slavery, the great stain on our nation's honor. Eventually, our children or perhaps their children will look back on this era and shake their heads at the willful ignorance and racism that continue to hold back social and economic progress. Kudos to Memphis for confronting this delicate but compelling issue, and may many other public officials across the south follow suit.
  • morphine-bunni
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    they may have lost, but they still do reenactments all the time. i live in the south, i'm embarrassed to say. and 85% of people here are proud of the fact they come from slave owmers and Confederate "heros".
  • kathyparsell
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    @morphine-bunni I can't say about Confederate "Heros" but if you have that many friends claiming to be slave owners, they probably are just after your morphine-bunni.
  • RobertJHarsh
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    HAHAHA! Rewrite history much?

    1) the capital city of the U.S. is named for a man who was one of the largest holders of black slaves in his day, a man who was matter-of-factly White racist, White separatist, and White supremacist, and who signed into law the restriction of U.S. naturalization to White people;

    2) his name is shorthand for the national government of the United States;

    3) there are fairly conspicuous monuments to both Washington and Jefferson, men who bought and traded black slaves the way you might buy and sell horses;

    4) there is a rather conspicuous monument to Lincoln, a man who, of course, made no effort to hide his own White supremacist and White separatist beliefs, and who worked to effect the removal of blacks from the United States up until his assassination. He only freed the slaves to foster a slave insurrection in the south. In reality, Lincoln and the next four presidents had policies on the books to attempt to deport blacks back to Africa but was thwarted, not by liberal carpetbaggers/republicans in the North, but in fact SOUTHERN conservative Democrats in attempts to beef up the population numbers so they could win more seats in the Congress.

    The point of my history lesson is the city of Memphis has far worse problems than the name of three parks.
  • kyrebel
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    These people fought for what they believed and they where Americans. Slavery is wrong, no doubt about that. They wanted states rights. They didn't want to be controlled by a man in washington dc. Just like Americans didn't want to be controlled by a king in England. The confederate soldiers deserve our respect and honor. I hope the state steps in and changes the names back. The people of Tennessee should be able to honor there ancestors with these parks. People in my family fought for the union and some fought for the south. I don't honor one anymore than the other.
  • Zazziness
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    "These people fought for what they believed and they were Americans."
    Not really. That's what they were fighting for -- to NOT be Americans. Or U.S. citizens.
  • Jet_Silverman
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    Evil people should not be honored. I'm not violating/illustrating Godwin's Law here, because this is a legit comparison. Should we have an "Adolph Hitler" park? He's part of history.

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  • stephen
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    good or bad those men was part of history. people dont seem to remember the civil war was not fought over slavery. slavery was a bye product of the civil war... the civil war was fought over state rights.. for example the same thing whats going on today with the fedral government under obama's tener
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