The Memphis City Council voted unanimously to dig up Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife from a local park and sell his statue.
The Nathan Bedford Forrest statue was spray painted with graffiti by vandals in 2013.
Now the statue will be sold off and the graves removed.
Local Memphis reported:
The Memphis City Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday to move the remains of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife from Health Sciences Park.
They have been buried in a park on Union Avenue for 110 years.
Council members are also moving ahead with plans to remove the statue of Forrest, even looking at selling the statue to anyone who wants it.
“The Forrest family is solidly opposed to digging up the graves and moving them any place,” said Lee Millar with the Son’s Of Confederate Veterans. “The statue just as well. They’re opposed to moving the statue too.”
There were rumors that the rush was on to move the statue and graves of Forrest and his wife in order to sell the property to the University of Tennessee.
“Has anyone else heard UT is about to do a $500 million expansion and that park is something they want?” asked council member Janis Fullilove.
Nathan Forrest was also a KKK leader like many Democratic leaders of the past.
Officials want his bust removed from the Tennessee Capitol.
