Proposed Miss. license plate to honor KKK leader

Newch91

This makes me sick.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110210/ap_ ... nse_plates

Proposed Miss. license plate to honor KKK leader

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press – 1 hr 53 mins ago
JACKSON, Miss. – 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 says it wants to sponsor a series of state-issued license plates to mark the 150th anniversary of what 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 the 1864 massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tenn. Forrest was a Klan grand wizard in Tennessee after the war.

Sons of Confederate Veterans member Greg Stewart said he believes Forrest distanced himself from the Klan later in life. It's a point many historians agree upon, though some believe it was too little, too late, because the Klan had already turned violent before Forrest left.

"If Christian redemption means anything — and we all want redemption, I think — he redeemed himself in his own time, in his own actions, in his own words," Stewart said. "We should respect that."

State Department of Revenue spokeswoman Kathy Waterbury said legislators would have to approve a series of Civil War license plates. She said if every group that has a specialty license plate wanted a redesign every year, it would take an inordinate amount time from Department of Revenue employees who have other duties.
SCV has not decided what the Forrest license plate would look like, Stewart said. Opponents are using their imagination.

A Facebook group called "Mississippians Against The Commemoration Of Grand Wizard Nathan Forrest" features a drawing of a hooded klansman in the center of a regular Mississippi car tag.

Robert McElvaine, director of history department at the private Millsaps College in Jackson, joined the Facebook group. McElvaine said Forrest's role at Fort Pillow and involvement in the Klan make him unworthy of being honored, even on the bumpers of cars.

"The idea of celebrating such a person, whatever his accomplishments in other areas may have been, seems like a very poor idea," McElvaine told The Associated Press.

Mississippi lawmakers have shown a decidedly laissez-faire attitude toward allowing a wide variety groups to have speciality license plates, which usually sell for an extra $30 to $50 a year. The state sells more than 100 specialty plates for everything from wildlife conservation to breast cancer awareness. One design says "God Bless America," another depicts Elvis Presley. Among the biggest sellers are NASCAR designs and one with the slogan "Choose Life."

The Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has had a state-issued specialty license plate since 2003 to raise money for restoration of Civil War-era flags. From 2003 through 2010, the design featured a small Confederate battle flag.

The Department of Revenue allowed the group to revise the license plate this year for the first of the Civil War sesquicentennial designs. The 2011 plate, now on sale, depicts the Beauvoir mansion in Biloxi, Miss., the final home of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president.

SCV wants license plates to feature Civil War battles that took place in Mississippi. It proposes a Battle of Corinth design for 2012 and Siege of Vicksburg design for 2013. Stewart said the 2015 plate would be a tribute to Confederate veterans.

Johnson, with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he's not bothered by Civil War commemorative license plates generally. But he said Mississippi shouldn't honor Forrest, who was an early leader of what he calls "a terrorist group."

"He should be viewed in the same light that we view Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden," Johnson said of Forrest. "The state of Mississippi should deny any vanity tags which would highlight racial hatred in this state."
Democratic Rep. Willie Bailey, who handles license plate requests in the House, said he has no problem with SCV seeking any design it wants.

"If they want a tag commemorating veterans of the Confederacy, I don't have a problem with it," said Bailey, who is black. "They have that right. We'll look at it. As long as it's not offensive to anybody, then they have the same rights as anybody else has."

gimmesometruth27

it disgusts me as well...

i don't understand why they feel the need to commemorate individuals, especially generals and leaders who fought in the civil war. if they want to commemorate anything, it should be of the battles themselves where thousands of men from both sides fought, were maimed or were killed. there are countless battles and skirmishes that were fought on confederate land, why not remember the battles instead of individuals? if this passes, then why not have Georgia honor Henry Wirz, the commandant at Andersonville Prison, or why not have Ohio honor William Tecumseh Sherman? Both of those men committed atrocities during the war the same as Nathan Bedford Forest did. But after the war they did not, while Forest helped perpetuate atrocities on African Americans.

i do not feel that it is appropriate to honor individual leaders of the Confederacy such as Jeff Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, as they are all traitors to the United States, and traitors should not be honored regardless of what they have done after the fact. and honoring forest is just inappropriate in my opinion. it just goes to perpetuate the belief that many northerners have of hatred being alive and well in Mississippi. Considering Mississippi's horrible record on civil rights, i feel this man is the LAST man they should be honoring with a license plate...but Mississippi is going to claim state's rights like usual and do what they want to do anyway in spite of what others may think, so since i have no control over the outcome i am not going to debate about it any more after this post.

whygohome

We are still such a backwards society..............

A friend of mine, referring to Obama's election, praised the U.S. for how tolerant a nation we are. I disagreed; I in no way feel that we should pat ourselves on the back for acknowledging the fact that people whose skin is a bit darker than ours deserve basic human rights. To make it worse, this "acknowledgment was only about 55-60 years ago. Yes, let's pat ourselves on the back.

Racism - against blacks, whites, asians, arabs - is still alive and well whether we want to admit it, or see it, or not. This is just a fact of life.

BinauralJam

Most Southerners would argue it's about History, Not Hate.
But i'm from N.Y., so i really dont care.

samsonite

BinauralJam wrote:

Most Southerners would argue it's about History, Not Hate.
But i'm from N.Y., so i really dont care.

i know it's a part of our history but it's part of our history marred by hate. honoring something is akin to celebrating it and i can't see any reason to celebrate this part of our history. i can't understand the current plate honoring "the Beauvoir mansion in Biloxi, Miss., the final home of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president." i don't get it.

:?

mysticweed

BinauralJam wrote:

Most Southerners would argue it's about History, Not Hate.
But i'm from N.Y., so i really dont care.

speaking as a child of the south
this disgusts me
'when i was sixish i saw a cross burning in the night sky on the "other" side of town
i had no clue what it meant, i was too sheltered

this man deserves no honor

JOEJOEJOE

They should honor the history of hope, not the history of hate.

BinauralJam

chickweed wrote:

BinauralJam wrote:

Most Southerners would argue it's about History, Not Hate.
But i'm from N.Y., so i really dont care.

speaking as a child of the south
this disgusts me
'when i was sixish i saw a cross burning in the night sky on the "other" side of town
i had no clue what it meant, i was too sheltered

this man deserves no honor

Perhaps when i said Most, i misspoke.

mysticweed

BinauralJam wrote:

chickweed wrote:

BinauralJam wrote:

Most Southerners would argue it's about History, Not Hate.
But i'm from N.Y., so i really dont care.

speaking as a child of the south
this disgusts me
'when i was sixish i saw a cross burning in the night sky on the "other" side of town
i had no clue what it meant, i was too sheltered

this man deserves no honor

Perhaps when i said Most, i misspoke.

it's ok, you're forgiven
i know you married one















southerner

tybird

Most people don't realize that the KKK that Forrest helped to create actually died out before the end of the 19th century. The current KKK can really only trace its history back to the WWI era....where it reared its ugly head as a reaction to immigration (Catholics/Jews especially) in the northern states.

While it is true that Confederate leaders can be viewed as traitors to the US, it must be pointed out that in the 1860s state governments were supreme in their little domains. The federal government was nowhere near as powerful and far-reaching as it is in our era. It was also believed that states had the right to secede from the union. A legal belief that has only been tested by gun-point.

mysticweed

tybird wrote:

Most people don't realize that the KKK that Forrest helped to create actually died out before the end of the 19th century. The current KKK can really only trace its history back to the WWI era....where it reared its ugly head as a reaction to immigration (Catholics/Jews especially) in the northern states.

While it is true that Confederate leaders can be viewed as traitors to the US, it must be pointed out that in the 1860s state governments were supreme in their little domains. The federal government was nowhere near as powerful and far-reaching as it is in our era. It was also believed that states had the right to secede from the union. A legal belief that has only been tested by gun-point.

pre wwi, post ww1, nazi, kkk, wbbc
all the same to me
all thrive on hate, all preach hate,
and
hatred
is the chorus of cowards

tybird

chickweed wrote:

tybird wrote:

Most people don't realize that the KKK that Forrest helped to create actually died out before the end of the 19th century. The current KKK can really only trace its history back to the WWI era....where it reared its ugly head as a reaction to immigration (Catholics/Jews especially) in the northern states.

While it is true that Confederate leaders can be viewed as traitors to the US, it must be pointed out that in the 1860s state governments were supreme in their little domains. The federal government was nowhere near as powerful and far-reaching as it is in our era. It was also believed that states had the right to secede from the union. A legal belief that has only been tested by gun-point.

pre wwi, post ww1, nazi, kkk, wbbc
all the same to me
all thrive on hate, all preach hate,
and
hatred
is the chorus of cowards

Please notice that I said "ugly head" in reference to this crowd.

mysticweed

tybird wrote:

chickweed wrote:

tybird wrote:

Most people don't realize that the KKK that Forrest helped to create actually died out before the end of the 19th century. The current KKK can really only trace its history back to the WWI era....where it reared its ugly head as a reaction to immigration (Catholics/Jews especially) in the northern states.

While it is true that Confederate leaders can be viewed as traitors to the US, it must be pointed out that in the 1860s state governments were supreme in their little domains. The federal government was nowhere near as powerful and far-reaching as it is in our era. It was also believed that states had the right to secede from the union. A legal belief that has only been tested by gun-point.

pre wwi, post ww1, nazi, kkk, wbbc
all the same to me
all thrive on hate, all preach hate,
and
hatred
is the chorus of cowards

Please notice that I said "ugly head" in reference to this crowd.

oh dear
i wasn't going at you
just all the ugly ugly heads