Memphians Donate Thousands After State's Statue Sanction

MEMPHIS, TN -- After the Tennessee House of Representatives voted to ax a $250,000 appropriation to Memphis for the city's bicentennial celebration in retribution for the removal of two statues of Confederate figures, a GoFundMe campaign is well on its way to making up the lost funds.

As news of the budgetary rebuke spread, Memphian Brittany Block launched the fundraising page in an effort to make up the quarter-million dollar loss. In less than 24 hours, nearly $50,000 was raised.

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Block reported on the page that she has a meeting scheduled with Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland Friday to discuss how to get the money to the city. In a statement Wednesday, Strickland said the city hadn't actually budgeted the $250,000 from the state anyway.

The Republican-dominated House passed the last-minute amendment removing the appropriation Tuesday, its sponsor explicitly saying it was in response to Memphis removing statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis.

"What this amendment does is it removes $250,000 from the budget that is designated to go to the city of Memphis for their bicentennial celebration," the amendment's sponsor, Rep. Steve McDaniel (R-Parkers Crossroads), said. "If you recall, back in December, Memphis did something that removed historical markers in the city. It was the city of Memphis that did this, and it was full knowing it was not the will of the legislature."

In December, exploiting a loophole in the state's so-called heritage protection law, the Memphis City Council approved the sale of two parks - Health Sciences Park, home of the statue and gravesite of Forrest, a slave trader and early leader of the Ku Klux Klan; and an easement in Fourth Bluff Park, site of a statue of Davis - to non-profit Memphis Greenspace Inc. for $1,000 apiece with the agreement the organization continue operating the land as parks.

The sale allowed Greenspace, as a private entity, to remove the statues. Under Tennessee state law, statues and monuments in spaces owned by state or local governments can only be removed through a convoluted process that includes petitions by the local government and approval by two-thirds of the state's historical commission.

Statues on private land - which, technically, the parks now are - are not subject to the law.

During Tuesday's debate, Rep. Antionio Parkinson, a Memphis Democrat, was cut off by boos from fellow legislators when he called the amendment "vile" and "racist" and said that his GOP colleagues treated Forrest like "a god."

Rep. Raumesh Akbari, also a Memphis Democrat, called the move "un-Christian."

"I know some of you all would be happy if we gave the doggone part of the state to Arkansas," she said. "Arkansas would gladly take us. But I'll tell you something: I don't support this, and I think if you do it you're being ugly. It's not fair. Memphis is a part of Tennessee. I didn't even realize how much y'all disliked Memphis till I got to this legislature."

Rep. Andy Holt, a Dresden Republican, compared Memphis' removal of statues to ISIS and said his "only regret about this is it's not in the tune of millions of dollars."

The state historic commission voted Oct. 13 to reject Memphis' longstanding request to remove the statues.

The city appealed that decision, but instead of waiting for a judge's ruling, executed the clever dodge.

The Memphis City Council has requested approval to remove the monuments several times in the last few years and the statues have been source of controversy for decades, as have the gravesite of Forrest and his wife, whose will made it clear they preferred to be buried at Elmwood Cemetery, but both were moved to what is now Health Sciences Park in 1904 and the statue of the general erected.

Image via GoFundMe