Country-singer-turned-mega-popstar Taylor Swift is reclaiming her roots back in Tennessee, and she wants to reform the state’s racist past and memorials remembering the “shameful history”.
The singer openly asked for change through her tweets and Instagram posts on Friday as she asked the Tennessee Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to take down historical memorials dedicated to those with stark racist past. ‘As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things,’ Swift especially called out two particular characters, Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest – noting that they ‘were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such.’
For clarification, the statue of Carmack has already been taken down by the raucous protesters outside the Tennessee Capitol situated in Nashville on May 30 by protesters.
The officials have, in retribution, have said that the state law decrees the statue is required to be repaired/restored and then reinstated in original position. The real way in which they could be completely removed would only be possible if the Tennesse Historical Commission agrees to eviscerate the whole thing to a nil.
The other one condemned by Swift, Forrest, was a ‘KKK Grand Wizard’ and Confederate general and his bust still remains inside the Capitol building and at least one statue of him within state boundaries. Swift’s social media message specifically ruled out the reasons behind her claims to have them removed:
About Carmack, Swift wrote: ‘FYI, he was a white supremacist newspaper editor who published pro-lynching editorials and incited the arson of the office of Ida B. Wells (who actually deserves a hero’s statue for her pioneering work in journalism and civil rights).’ She noted that ‘Replacing his statue is a waste of state funds and a waste of an opportunity to do the right thing.’
Swift then took aim at Forrest where Swift called the statue a ‘monstrosity’ and wrote: ‘Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brutal slave trader and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who, during the Civil War, massacred dozens of black Union soldiers in Memphis.
His statue is still standing and July 13th is “Nathan Bedford Forrest Day.” Due to social pressure, the state is trying to overrule this, and Tennesseans might no longer have to stomach it. Fingers crossed.’
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Replaced!