Pastors call on Lee to address Forrest’s legacy

Published 4:43 pm Thursday, July 9, 2020

On Wednesday, pastors from across Tennessee called for the removal of the bust of Confederate General and Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee Capitol building, the elimination of the official day of observance in his honor from State calendars, and for the leaders of our state, beginning with Governor Lee, to take responsibility for and address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on black, latinx, and other minority groups, continuing the legacy of Forrest.

The steps that these pastors and the Southern Christian Coalition believe that Governor Lee can and should take to address this inequality include improving and enforcing the Tennessee Pledge guidelines to protect workers and consumers from unscrupulous businesses, using his Emergency Powers to expand Medicaid, granting insurance coverage to hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans during this pandemic, and using his power as leader of his party to make that a permanent change, and work in the future to pass legislation and in the present to effect administrative reform to arrest our state’s practice of mass incarceration that has put those imprisoned in harm’s way during this COVID-19 season.