As more calls grow across the country to remove Confederate statues, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee remained steadfast Tuesday in their resistance to removing a bust of a former Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader displayed prominently inside the state capitol.
However, legislation that would stop designating July 13 as Nathan Bedford Forrest day advanced in the House on Tuesday — even though a conflicting version is also making its way in the Senate.
Republican members echoed previous stances that they did not want to “erase history” while their fellow black colleagues stressed that the state’s continued honoring of Forrest remains deeply painful.
