by Mark Habelt
Middle Tennessee State University is trying again to remove the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate lieutenant general and former Klan leader. His name is on the school’s Army ROTC building.
This is the university’s second attempt, as it unsuccessfully filed a similar petition in 2018.
In a recent hearing before the Tennessee Historical Commission, MTSU argued its case to obtain a waiver under the state’s Heritage Protection Act to rename Forrest Hall.
University representatives will participate in a final hearing before the commission early next year. The commission will issue a ruling within 30 days. To gain the authority to rename Forrest Hall, MTSU would need to obtain a 2/3rds vote in its favor from the commission, or at least 20 votes from the 29-member board.
MTSU media representatives did not respond to two emailed inquiries sent in the past two weeks.
The College Fix asked whether Forrest Hall is the only building for which the university is seeking a waiver for a name change from the Tennessee Historical Commission. Additionally, The Fix asked whether the university plans to change the name of the building to commemorate a specific person.
As a Confederate leader, Forrest (pictured above) oversaw a massacre of black and white troops, even after the Union had surrendered. He was later a high-ranking leader in the Ku Klux Klan.
Near the end of his life, however, Forrest renounced his past support for racial discrimination against black Americans and advocated for the integration of America’s law schools.
In its petition for a waiver from the commission, MTSU stated “the interest of commemorating a famous Tennessean who has been dead for over 140 years is outweighed by the interest of thousands of citizens… who deem such commemoration . . . hurtful.”
The interest of these “thousands of citizens” proves “a substantial need based on compelling public interest,” to rename Forrest Hall. Under the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, this “substantial need” standard must be met in order for the commission to authorize the removal of Forrest’s name from the ROTC building.
The rationale behind the Tennessee Historical Commission’s decision to deny MTSU’s waiver request in 2018 rested partially on the fact that a substantial majority of alumni of the school’s Military Science program opposed the renaming, according to an internal survey commissioned by the school’s Military Science Alumni Chapter.
Moreover, the commission at the time noted that the university failed to prove any racial intent behind Forrest Hall’s original naming.
The university has now moved to tailor its argument before the commission by citing changed circumstances in American civil society. In its most recent petition for a waiver, the university argues that the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd in recent years have initiated a nationwide racial reckoning and necessitated the removal of Confederate figures from public view.
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College Fix contributor Mark Habelt is a student at Arizona State University studying political science and global studies. Mark served as a communications intern at both Students for Life of America and the Goldwater Institute.
Image “Nathan Bedford Forrest” by Histories of Generals and MTSU Campus” is by MTSU.
