Tiger
I kinda enjoy your rebuttles, obviously you've become emotionally attached to cherished lies biased Northern media & Yankee folklorists. You're
actually pretty good at it going into pretzel like contortions airbrushing the truth & maximizing the few incidents in his life when Forrest himself
may have like all human beings fallen short of the mark. Lies must be approached with caution. Each teller of a folktale embellishes, elaborates,
embroiders until, kudzu-like, the lying creeps and entangles. Heroes become villains New characters appear, phantoms who never were.
A squad is a battalion, a ditch is the Grand Canyon, a hill the continental divide.
Know this:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/ge...est-the-first-true-civil-rights-leader.76469/
Fame's Eternal Camping Ground," Trefor Jones
The facts are there, and they are true facts, but the history we have been taught and the true history are not the same.
What did Forrest fight for after the war was over? You may not believe it, but Forrest was probably the 'first white man' to fight for and promote equality and civil rights for blacks.Forrest disbanded the Klan in 1869 because its mission had been achieved. Union appointed Governor Brownlow and the viscous carpetbaggers had been defeated.
At a time when the northern states were passing laws 'forbidding' blacks to live in their territories, Bedford Forrest publicly, and at great personal risk defended the civil rights of the black people.
Forrest said there was no reason black people could not be doctors, store clerks, bankers, or in any other jobs 'equal' to whites. He said they were skilled artisans and needed to be employed in those skills so that successive 'black' generations would not be dependent on a welfare society. (Forrest was a man of vision).
To prove his point, when he organized the Memphis & Selma Railroad, Forrest took it upon himself to hire blacks as architects, construction engineers, foremen, train engineers, conductors, and many other high level jobs, not just laborer positions. (The first affirmative action).
The Independent Order of Pole Bearers Association (a forerunner of the NAACP), invited General Forrest, the first white man ever invited, to speak at their convention on July 5, 1875. During his speech, too much applause, Bedford said: "I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate every man - to depress none.
These lesser known efferts really the epologue of Forrest's life are not the reason of his fame but are important to note., the words on his monuments are,
"Those hoof beats die not upon fame's crimson sod,
But will ring through her song and her story;
He fought like a Titan and struck like a god,
And his dust is our ashes of glory."