The Past Ain't Even the Past
The SCV wants Mississippi to issue license plates honoring Forrest. I have a better idea:
Nathan Forrest was not born to money. But like many other white men in the 1840s and 1850s, he built a fortune by throwing himself into the booming business of buying and selling people. Forrest went on to participate a war against the Union, massacre black troops at Fort Pillow, and then join the Ku Klux Klan. His defenders point to a last minute confession, which they suggest should wipe the slate clean.
I am not here to make up people's minds. But in this world of beautiful things, and incredible human life, its worth asking what would compel someone to elevate an ex-Klansman and proud proprietor of a "Negro Mart" into the heights of their personal Valhalla. This a state where people are struggling to get a statue for Fannie Lou Hamer.
H/T to Balloon Juice for the image.
UPDATE: Thread closed for cleaning. Be back up in a sec.
UPDATE: Back open.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a former national correspondent for The Atlantic. He is the author of The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, The Water Dancer, and Between the World and Me, which won the National Book Award for nonfiction.