Jay Miller

Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel

GATLINBURG, Tenn. — The Tennessee Historical Commission has rejected a move by the Memphis City Council to relocate a controversial statue of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest from a park near downtown Memphis.

The application for the move was submitted in reaction to the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013, which prevents cities or counties from relocating, removing, renaming, or otherwise disturbing war memorials on public properties.

The Tennessee Historical Commission on Friday denied the application for waiver based on criteria adopted by the commission in October 2015.

The statue, which depicts the former Confederate lieutenant-general astride his horse King Phillip, is currently located in Health Sciences Park near downtown Memphis.

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The statue was dedicated to the city of Memphis in 1905 and erected as an “enduring monument” to Forrest.

Forrest made a fortune trading slaves prior to the Civil War. He also was a controversial figure during the war, allegedly leading a massacre of Union troops at Fort Pillow in 1864, most of whom were black and attempting to surrender.

He was also the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

The commission meeting took place Friday in Gatlinburg. The 29-member board meets three times a year. Eighteen members of the board were at Friday’s meeting.

According to Max Fleischer, legal representative for the commission, the board had the opportunity to vote to change the criteria Friday but no motion was made to do so.

“The commission had already adopted criteria, and if the application did not meet the criteria it would be denied,” Fleischer said.

In August 2015, the Memphis City Council voted to remove the statue, along with the remains of Forrest and his wife, from the park.

The commission considered only the fate of the statue on Friday. Family approval and court approval would be needed to relocate the remains of Forrest and his wife.

The council vote followed a national effort to remove Confederate symbols in public spaces in the wake of the widely publicized shooting deaths of nine African Americans at a church in Charleston, S.C.

Allan J. Wade, an attorney representing the city of Memphis, sought a waiver in March with the Tennessee Historical Commission to have the removal considered. In the application, Wade requested the statue be relocated to a “more suitable location.”

The application stated the city of Savannah, Tenn., "had expressed interest for the relocation” and the National Civil War Trust was considering a proposal to move the statue to Brice’s Crossroad National Battlefield near Baldwyn, Miss.

“Both locations are far more suitable than the present site,” Wade said in the application.

The city can submit another application for waiver for consideration, but the criteria has not changed.