The musician called for Tennessee's government to remove statues of what she called 'racist historical figures' in the state.
"As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things," Swift wrote. "Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such."
Carmack was known for his antagonistic relationship with black civil rights leader and NAACP co-founder Ida B. Wells; he incited a mob that destroyed her Memphis newspaper office due to her stance against segregation, lynching, and other racial injustices. A statue of Carmack was erected at the state capitol in 1927, almost 20 years after his death, and was"Replacing his statue is a waste of state funds and a waste of an opportunity to do the right thing," Swift wrote on Twitter.
Forrest, meanwhile, served as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War, in which he had been a Confederate general. A bust of Forrest resides in the Tennessee State Capitol, and an equestrian statue stands near Interstate 65 in Nashville. An additional statue of Forrest in Memphis was removed in 2017.
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