With local law enforcement on high alert, Confederate-monument sympathizers on Saturday took to the streets of Memphis and the surrounding area to decry the recent removal of three monuments saluting Confederate-era figures.
In various forms, the message was that the City of Memphis had illegally sold the parks, where the statutes had been displayed, to a private entity (Memphis Greenspace, Inc.) that promptly had them removed.
Controversial Confederate Army Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, they asserted, was actually one of the best friends blacks in America ever had and was fully deserving of the monument to him that long stood in the park that bore his name before the park was renamed Health Sciences Park.
TSD freelance journalist Johnathan Martin kept pace with the demonstrators, capturing myriad images and this video. Stay tuned to for more coverage at TSDMemphis.com and check out next week’s print edition.
