Confederate Statue Removal is a Step in the Right Direction, But Memphis Still Has a Ways to go

The political dichotomy between race and space has always loomed large over Memphis. One of the most glaring examples is how the city is still very much divided by race as it was 50 years ago. Many of the black communities still suffer from redlining and other forms of divestment and neglect. The fact that a disproportionate black Memphians live in substandard conditions shows that the mark of white supremacy still looms large in the minds of both white city leaders and black citizens. This divestment in the communities was not caused by redlining policies alone. In the 1950s, Memphis was a booming town that saw massive growth in the population of both black and white residents. Soon the strategically carved spaces for black people to live in within the city limits became too small to confine the number of growing black residents and they began to prosper despite the obstacles put in their way.

The surge in the black population also brought along opportunities for black people to organize and become more economically independent. The advancement of the Negro community naturally angered their white counterparts and in 1954, E.H. “Boss” Crump ordered to have a statue erected to commemorate the founding klansman and confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. While many Memphians saw this as a harmless homage to the confederacy, the context under which it was put up suggests otherwise.

The year 1954 was about one hundred years removed from the end of the civil war, and in that period some righteously angry World War II veterans who wished to lay claim to their full rights as American citizens had started many conversations about race and class. By the time of the statue’s erection, the second wave of the push for civil rights by African Americans was well under way. Landmark court cases like Brown v. Board of Education had given black Memphians interested in civil rights activism the confidence to keep fighting. Naturally, white Memphians were angry and felt that they had been deprived of their right to oppress others sought for more subtle ways to do so. (Ironic right?) Through this lens, it can be inferred the erection of the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue was meant to send a message that white supremacy was there to stay and that no matter how hard Memphis’ Negro citizens tried, they would never be fully accepted into the mainstream of Memphis’ society.

This assertion of white supremacy through this statue would leave a mark on the city that is still seen today. As the demographics of Memphis changed, black Memphians began to look at the statue with more open contempt and in the early 2010’s there were pushes to take it down. The city put it on a referendum and Memphians said loud and clear that they did not want the statue there anymore. However, the action of taking the statues down was blocked by a law from the state senate that forbade cities to take down monuments without the state’s permission. This was a particularly demoralizing blow to the cities black residents because it meant that they had to keep feeling like second class citizens in their own city.

However, city leaders did not stop there. They spent the next 4 years deliberating and looking for ways around the unjust legislation from last year and in a stroke of genius, they used a loophole in the law to sell the parklands to a private, Non-Profit organization. On December 20, 2017, the statues were removed from the parks finally. While this seminal event was a huge step in the right direction, the city still has to do the legwork to usher in a true paradigm shift.