Forrest as a Focal Point

As stated in previous posts the debate about the Nathan Bedford Forrest license plate tag revolves around the issue of what individuals believe he did during his life. Through extensive research it has be demonstrated that the legacy of Nathan Bedford Forrest can not be summed up as good or bad or even as racist or non-racist. Forrest was a Man of complex character one who was a slave trader but also offered to treat black union soldiers as prisoners of war not property. And while it has been historically proven he was a member of the KKK and its first Grand Wizard there is evidence to suggest that the first KKK was largely acting as a resistance group against policies of northern politicians. Policies that many southerns at the time believed were unfair to former confederate soldiers. However all of these qualities are not unique to Forrest rather they are representative of the struggle that exists in all southerners. The NAACP has stated numerous times in the debates over the Forrest license plate that there is a larger argument than simply that of the memory of Nathan Beford Forrest. Forrest has become the focal point for the debate about the history of the south as well as how southerners should identify themselves today. 

 

As demonstrated by the above video of an interview done by CNN while the Forrest license plate is the topic of the segment the argument quickly shifts to southern identity. The head of the Mississippi NAACP, Derrick Johnson, states that the NAACP opposes the commemoration of any confederate soldiers because they were traitors to the union. Mr. Johnson even goes so far as to call Jefferson Davis the worst traitor in American history, a title normally reserved for Benedict Arnold. On the other hand the representative of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Garret Stewart, states that the reason for the license plate tag is to repair civil war flags that northern states have returned to the south since the end of the war. Mr. Garret also points out that the Nathan Bedford Forrest license plate tag is not the only one they have proposed. He makes special mention that a tag of Jefferson Davis' home was released this year for sale to he public. Mr. Johnson's response was simply that the NAACP opposes all of these license plate tags simply on the fact that they commemorate the confederacy. This comment is crucial to the argument at hand as it is a clear cut example of the NAACP being opposed to the historic south. Many southerns hold the civil war to be part of their heritage and part of their cultural identity. As such this shows that the debate about Forrest's memory is actually just a focal point for the debate about the historic and cultural identity of Mississippi and the entirety of the South.