Don't Believe the Lib Lies About General Forrest
Why Forrest Encouraged an End to Racial Conflict
Why Forrest Encouraged an End to Racial Conflict
(Wanjiru Njoya, Abbeville Institute) - There is no better place to begin understanding the party politics of the post-reconstruction South than with the Fourth of July celebrations organized by the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers in Memphis, Tennessee, 1875. The Pole-Bearers were a “fraternal society,” or mutual aid society, for the welfare and defense of black people. In attendance at this event were various former Confederate generals and Southern Democrats, who had been invited by the black leaders for purposes of celebration, reconciliation and, indirectly, to try and persuade their members that they would be better off voting for the Democratic party and not the Republican party. The black leaders expressed a wish to “reconcile” with white Southerners as they felt betrayed by their experience of the previous ten years with the Radical Republicans, whom they accused of treating black people as mere tools for their political games.
Nathan Bedford Forrest seems to have been essentially the guest of honor at this event. He was certainly the star of the show. He was presented with a bouquet of flowers by the black ladies, which strikes modern readers – who know nothing of Forrest’s popularity – as astonishing. Forrest delivered a brief but now well-known speech in which he encouraged an end to racial conflict. The event was covered at the time by the Memphis Daily Appeal and another local newspaper.
This event is revisited annually in debates surrounding Nathan Bedford Forrest Day in Tennessee. Those who wish to denigrate Forrest’s legacy insist on…
The South has always produced the greatest military minds