Crews remove Confederate statues from 2 Memphis city parks
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. CBS affiliate WREG reported a large police prescence surrounding one of the statues.
The Commercial Appeal reports Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said in a tweet Wednesday 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.
A statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest is located in Health Sciences Park and one of President Jefferson Davis is at Fourth Bluff Park.
A crane and crews were at Health Sciences Wednesday evening where a strap was wrapped around the Forrest statue.
Earlier this month, the city filed a petition asking for judicial review of the Tennessee Historical Commission's denial of a request to remove the Forrest statue.
Forrest was a slave trader, Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader who became influential in the city's growth after the Civil War.
WREG reports that city officials have said for some time that are unanimous in wanting Memphis' Confederate statues removed before the 50th anniversary next year of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination in Memphis in April 1968.
