NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee panel on Tuesday overwhelming voted to remove the state Capitol's bust of a Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader.
However, while the decision marks a key win in a decades-long effort to oust the Nathan Bedford Bust from the second floor of the Capitol building, it remains unclear how soon that will actually happen.
While the Tennessee Historical Commission agreed that the bust should be moved to the Tennessee State Museum, it did not lay out clear next steps for its removal. Instead, the panel said the museum was better equipped to provide the appropriate context.
"Forrest represents pain, suffering and brutal crimes committed against African Americans, and that pain is very real for our fellow Tennesseans as they walk the halls of our statehouse and evaluate how he could be one of just the nine busts elevated to a place of reverence," Gov. Bill Lee said in a record video message during Tuesday's meeting.
A spokesperson for Lee, a Republican who supported the museum designation for the bust, did not immediately respond to questions.
Meanwhile, the top two legislative leaders inside Tennessee's GOP-dominant Statehouse have remained adamant that the Historical Commission had no authority to approve of the removal because it did not first have approval from the State Building Commission. Senate Speaker Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton have requested a legal opinion from the Attorney General's office on that matter as well as whether the Legislature is ultimately in charge of the removal.
It's unknown if that dispute, if at all, will slow down the removal of the Bedford bust.
Forrest was a Confederate cavalry general who amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader in Memphis before the Civil War and later became a Klan leader.