NASHVILLE (AP) - The chairwoman of the Tennessee Democratic Party wants to begin a discussion about whether to keep naming an annual fundraiser after President Andrew Jackson.
Mary Mancini said in an email Tuesday that while the party has long celebrated Jackson's legacy as a general and the country's seventh president, it shouldn't ignore his participation in slavery and the forced removal of native Americans.
"If we don't acknowledge the whole of our history ... then we would be derelict in our stewardship of that legacy," she said.
Mancini said she has been receiving questions about the role of Jackson in party events amid a national debate over Jackson's likeness on the $20 bill and the decision by Democrats in Connecticut and Georgia to rename their Jackson-Jefferson Day events.
Mancini did not indicate her preference on the issue but called for every voice to be heard within what she called the Democrats' "big, colorful te nt."
State Rep. JoAnne Favors said she's long felt the name of the fundraiser should be changed.
"We have so many other individuals who more accurately reflect the principles of the Democratic Party, the values of the Democratic Party," said the Chattanooga Democrat.