Ryan Poe

The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal

MEMPHIS — After city officials found a way around Tennessee law to remove two prominent Confederate statues last week, those against the move decided to strike back on Christmas on social media.

Most have been trolling anonymously, attaching comments to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland's "Merry Christmas" Facebook post. One of the more mild responses hoped that Strickland would find coal in his stocking Christmas morning.

Others haven't decided whether Strickland, a white Democrat who was sworn into office Jan. 1, 2016, is a fascist or communist. Generally, extreme right political views have been defined as fascism and extreme left as communism; both are forms of dictatorship.

"We've received a fair number of vulgar posts — almost exclusively from out-of-towners," said city spokesman Kyle Veazey, who manages Memphis' social media accounts. "They have the ability to post, but Memphians do as well."

► Thursday:State lawmakers cry foul at removal of 2 Confederate statues downtown

► Wednesday:Memphis removes Confederate statues following sale of public parks

► Oct. 31:John Kelly says Civil War was caused by 'lack of the ability to compromise'

Here's what happened Wednesday before Christmas: City Council members unanimously approved the sale of Health Sciences Park, home to a statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest on his horse, and sale of the city's easement on Fourth Bluff Park, which had a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, to a nonprofit group. Immediately afterward after dark, that group brought in a crane to begin the statues' removal.

Before 11 p.m. CT the same day, the memorials to both Forrest, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and Davis, the Confederate States of America's only president, were on the back of flatbed trucks and taken to an undisclosed location until the next steps are decided.

Also removed was a bust in Fourth Bluff Park of Capt. J. Harvey Mathes, a Confederate soldier who lost his leg in the Battle of Atlanta. Mathes had been a soldier and a war correspondent for The Memphis Daily Appeal, the precursor to The Commercial Appeal.

"Backwater rubes, the removal of our cultural resources is an embarrassment to Tennessee, The United States, and the world," Rick McGee of Williamsburg, Va., wrote Tuesday evening, calling Memphis officially a third-world city.

The City Council's actions followed months of Memphis officials' frustration as they fought against Tennessee state officials' reams of red tape keeping the statues in place despite a wave of local opposition. The parks are in private hands now but still are being operated as public parks.



The Forrest memorial was dedicated in 1905; the Davis monument in 1964. Forrest's statue was erected as many veterans who had fought in the Civil War were getting old and dying; the monument for Davis was placed the same year as the landmark federal Civil Rights Act that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin after eight years of fundraising.

Both men lived at least briefly in the Bluff City. Forrest died here at age 56.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy, at the heart of many fund-raising drives in the past century to build Confederate memorials, issued a statement Aug. 21 after the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer nine days earlier during a white-nationalist protest against removing a memorial to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va. Its president denounced the hate groups that have adopted Confederate symbols and sought to focus on history.

► Oct. 25:Take my Confederate monument and I'll remove your MLK one

► Oct. 8:White supremacists say Charlottesville rally is model for protests

"Our Confederate ancestors were and are Americans, wrote Patricia Bryson, president general of the group whose members are descended from Confederate soldiers. "We as an organization do not sit in judgment of them nor do we impose the standards of the 21st century on these Americans of the 19th century."

Across the USA, at least two dozen cities — including Baltimore, Dallas, Louisville, New Orleans, San Diego and even Helena, Mont. — have removed or relocated Confederate statues and monuments this year.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit specializing in civil rights, in its April 2016 report Whose Heritage? Public symbols of the Confederacy identified more than 700 Confederate monuments and statues nationwide. With the removal of the three memorials last week, Memphis has no remaining public Confederate statues; Nashville has a bust of Forrest in the state Capitol.

► Oct. 4:As Confederate statues come down, what about Columbus?

► Sept. 17:Truck rams Confederate statue at Ole Miss

"The outsiders and malcontents are obnoxiously loud, but the rest of us are sitting here in solidarity. Thank you," Donnita Cunningham, a Memphis resident, wrote in response to the mayor's holiday wishes.

The malcontents also began posting negative one-star reviews of the city on Facebook, dropping its rating 2.1 stars on a five-star scale.

But following a plea from Veazey, more than 630 people — including Commercial Appeal columnist Geoff Calkins — posted new five-star reviews to raise the average rating to 3.6 stars. As of Tuesday afternoon, Memphis had 772 five-star ratings and 414 one-star ratings with few in between.

► Sept. 1:Nathan Bedford Forrest stays in Tennessee Capitol, panel decides

► Aug. 29:A Confederate monument in Ohio: 'What's the big ordeal?'

"I have lived in Memphis for 27 years," neighborhood activist Scott Springer wrote. "It has become a better place to live every year."

By evening, the single-star ratings had climbed to more than 1,400, and five-star ratings were about two-thirds of that at a little more than 900. The Facebook star average stood at 2.6.

In her review, a twice-deployed, now-retired Army soldier, Lori Luster, said she was proud of her city for its takedown of the statues of "traitors to the country."

"Museums and history books can preserve this horrific and shameful history, not a park," she wrote.

Follow Ryan Poe on Twitter: @ryanpoe