The Debate begins

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an organization for individuals who are descended from confederate soldiers. In conjunction with the United Daughters of the Confederacy they are responsible for the majority of the civil war monuments as well as civil war commemoration events. As part of the 150th anniversary the SCV has submitted designs for commemorative license plates to be issued one at a time until 2015. However the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) opposes these designs. In particular the NAACP has brought national attention to a design that would commemorate confederate Lieutenant-General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest was and continues to be a man of immense controversy. During his life he was both a slave trader and the First Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Forrest has also been accused of slaughtering black Union soldiers at what has come to be known as the "Fort Pillow Massacre." The NAACP has petitioned the governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, to denounce the proposed license plate tag and prevent it from reaching the state congress for consideration. Governor Barbour has publicly declined to denounce the SCV proposal on the grounds that it simply doesn't have enough support to become law. As straight forward as this debate seems at the surface it is anything but. Getting to the truth about the life of Nathan Bedford Forrest is difficult as what is fact and what is fiction has become highly politicized since Forrest's death in 1877. Forrest was used as an example of antebellum southern values in the late 19th century, he became a symbol of greatness of the south's past. But his identity shifted during the early 20th century as people used his ties to the early KKK to turn him into the great white hope of the Jim Crow era south. However whites were not the only group to use Forrest as an example for their cause. During the civil right movement of the 1950's and 60's African Americans began to use Forrest as an example of white southern hatred. Forrest's image and memory have been invoked throughout the south over generations as the poster boy for their cause. As such the facts surrounding Nathan Bedford Forrest are not always easy to get to. One thing is certain though Nathan Bedford Forrest and his legacy have become the focal point for the debate over the history and culture of the American South.