Memphis News-Scimitar 1905 cartoon of the Statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest

Boo Who?

Meg
Meg
Aug 23, 2017 · 1 min read

You were the ones who
Were able to say “Boo!”
Nobody said boo,
Because they were scared to.

Now the crowd boos you,
To let you know they're through.
Freedom’s a bitch, true,
To ghosts getting their due.


With thanks to MLK50 Memphis and author William R. Black for the image and article Celebrating Nathan Bedford Forrest is celebrating white supremacy.

For a few weeks in 1905, before the statue was dedicated, Nathan Bedford Forrest and his horse were draped in a large white cloth. It occurred to a writer at the Memphis News-Scimitar that it looked as though the man and horse were once again clad in the “ghostly garb” of the Ku-Klux Klan. The thought thrilled him.

The journalist wrote that “the great leader of this secret clan rides once more” and was “calling his own to follow him again.” He imagined the ghosts of Confederate soldiers and Klansmen rising from their graves at Elmwood Cemetery and floating down to Forrest Park. Listen closely, he told his readers. That’s not a gust of wind — it’s the swearing of oaths by hooded Klansmen. That’s not a “rumble of thunder” — it’s the stamping of horses shrouded in white.

Resistance Poetry

Verse as Commentary

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Meg

Written by

Meg

Writing, because talk is cheap

Resistance Poetry

Verse as Commentary

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