Groups sue over Confederate statues' removal at Memphis parks

January 12, 2018 at 2:26 p.m.

by The Associated Press

Associated Press/ADRIAN SAINZ In this Aug. 18, 2017, photo, a statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest sits in a park in Memphis, Tenn. A city council in Tennessee has voted to sell two city parks where two Confederate statues are located and crews have begun work to remove one of them. The Commercial Appeal reports Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said in a tweet Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, that the parks were sold and that work underway there complies with state law. The city council unanimously approved the sale Wednesday to a private entity.
Associated Press/ADRIAN SAINZ In this Aug. 18, 2017, photo, a statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest sits in a park in Memphis, Tenn. A city council in Tennessee has voted to sell two city parks where two Confederate statues are located and crews have begun work to remove one of them. The Commercial Appeal reports Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said in a tweet Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, that the parks were sold and that work underway there complies with state law. The city council unanimously approved the sale Wednesday to a private entity.

MEMPHIS — Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's family and the Sons of Confederate Veterans are challenging last month's removal of Confederate statues from Memphis parks.

According to The Commercial Appeal, the petition with the Tennessee Historical Commission claims Memphis and nonprofit Memphis Greenspace Inc. violated multiple state laws.

The city sold the nonprofit two parks for $1,000 each last month. The nonprofit removed statues of Forrest, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and war correspondent and Capt. J. Harvey Mathes.

Sons of Confederate Veterans lawyer Doug Jones said they removed the top of graves of Forrest and his wife. The city said the statues weren't headstones. Markers with their names remain.

City Attorney Bruce McMullen maintains the move was legal.

Another Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter lawsuit seeks to keep the statues from being sold or harmed.

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