Memphis Greenspace Inc. is a non-profit corporation started in October 2017 in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. The issue that led to its creation was the unanimous decision of the City Council of Memphis and Shelby County to remove statues of Confederate Generals

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

and

Nathan Bedford Forrest Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821October 29, 1877) was an List of slave traders of the United States, American slave trader, active in the lower Mississippi River valley, who served as a General officers in the Confederate States Army, Con ...

from public parks. However, under the new Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, they could not do so without permission from the

Tennessee Historical Commission The Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) is the State Historic Preservation Office for the U.S. state of Tennessee. Headquartered in Nashville, it is an independent state agency, administratively attached to the Department of Environment and C ...

, which refused permission. Memphis Greenspace purchased Health Sciences Park (formerly Forrest Park) and Fourth Bluff Park, which housed the two statues, for each, and immediately removed the statues. According to the terms of the sale, the land must continue as parks. The president of Memphis Greenspace is Van Turner, a Shelby County Commissioner. He announced that it plans to buy more parks in the future. In 2019, a legal action brought against Memphis Greenspace's removal of the statues was dismissed by the

Tennessee Court of Appeals The Tennessee Court of Appeals (in case citation, Tenn. Ct. App.) was created in 1925 by the Tennessee General Assembly as an intermediate appellate court to hear appeals in civil cases from the Tennessee state trial courts. Appeals of judgments ...

. In 2020, Memphis Greenspace agreed to the removal of the remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife Anne, which had been buried beneath the equestrian statue of Forrest in Health Science Park, to another site.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://memphisgreenspace.org/ * African-American history in Memphis, Tennessee Nathan Bedford Forrest Non-profit corporations Community organizations Organizations based in Memphis, Tennessee Organizations established in 2017