JACKSON, Miss., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The Sons of Confederate Veterans in Mississippi has stirred a hornets nest by pushing for a specialty license plate to honor a Ku Klux Klan founder.

The group of rebel offspring wants to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil war in 2014 by sponsoring five state-issued license plates that would become available to the public in 2014, Jackson's WJTV-TV reported Friday.


One of the plates would honor Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who helped get the KKK started before he died 14 years after the war between the states.

That doesn't sit well with state NAACP leaders who contend Mississippi shouldn't honor a man who was a leader of what they consider a terrorist group. License plates bearing Forrest's image would be wrong, they say.

"Because it says we haven't progressed others say Mississippi hasn't come that far so why give them an instance to say that while still celebrating the past," Vanessa McDowell said.

Lori Blanton agrees, saying, "I think it keep bitterness and hatred toward one another."

But Leroy Pettyjohn told the TV station the plates wouldn't bother him.

"I don't really have a problem with it I don't agree with their agenda," Pettyjohn said.