Black America Web is reporting that a fight is brewing in Mississippi over a proposal to issue specialty license plates honoring Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan. The Mississippi Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans wants to sponsor a series of state-issued license plates to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which it calls "the War Between the States." The group proposes a different design each year between now and 2015, with Forrest slated for 2014.
"Seriously?" state NAACP President Derrick Johnson said when he was told about the Forrest plate. "Wow." Forrest, a Tennessee native, is revered by some as a military genius and reviled by others for leading an 1864 massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tenn. He was also a Klan grand wizard in Tennessee after the war.
Only in America do people celebrate a war that was lost and run by a bunch of people who wanted to secede from the country, which is typically referred to as treason. That should be enough to hide in shame, but obviously not enough for some, proposing to celebrate a murderous Ku Klux Klan leader to boot. A bad idea at best and an unconscionable act at worst, neither of which is acceptable.
Read more at Black America Web.
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