Tennessee Politician Wants to Replace State Capitol Statue of Confederate General With Dolly Parton

The Tennessee Capitol currently displays eight busts of historical figures, including Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and founding member of the Ku Klux Klan. According to artnet News, Forrest made a fortune as a slave trader before the war, and is now mostly remembered for leading 1864’s Fort Pillow Massacre, during which his troops killed hundreds of black Union soldiers who were trying to surrender.

Though some people argue that Forrest's later support of racial harmony justifies keeping his statue in the Capitol, Republican representative Jeremy Faison thinks it’s time to honor someone else—he’s suggesting Dolly Parton, a Tennessee native known for songs like “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” her Tennessee theme park, Dollywood; and, of course, her illustrious country music career.

He’s open to other ideas, too, but he thinks it should be a woman. Right now, all eight of the busts belong to men.

“My daughter is 16, and I would love for her to come into the Capitol and see a lady up there,” Faison told the Tennessean. “What’s wrong with Anne Dallas Dudley getting in that alcove?” Dudley, a Nashville-born suffragist, helped Tennessee become the final state to ratify the 19th Amendment.

Faison is a relatively new voice advocating to replace Forrest’s controversial bust; he originally felt that it should keep its place in the Capitol, since Forrest is a part of history. However, after Representative G.A. Hardaway encouraged him to delve into Forrest’s ideology, Faison decided Forrest’s role in history could be remembered and studied without granting him a place of honor in the state Capitol. Instead, he thinks the bust should be relocated to a museum.

There are about 50,000 signatures on a petition calling for Tennessee governor Bill Lee to move Forrest’s bust, but it could still take a while for Tennesseans to see a bronze Dolly Parton in the Capitol. Before any action is taken, the State Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission would have to vote on a resolution, and no such resolution has been introduced yet.

[h/t artnet News]