FROM CHANGE.ORG
In
Selma, Alabama, a monument to the first leader of the Ku Klux Klan is under
construction on public land.
PHOTO Malika Sanders Fortier speaking to youth in Selma
The statue of
Confederate General Nathan Forrest -- infamous as the first Grand WIzard of the
Klan and for massacring black Union soldiers at the Civil War battle of Fort
Pillow -- even has the blessing of the Selma City Council.
Selma is home
to some of the most important events of the Civil Rights Movement -- including
"Bloody Sunday," when 600 activists fighting for African-American voting rights
were attacked by state and local police.
Unless the city council stops it, a
"bigger and better than ever" monument will be constructed to honor Nathan
Bedford Forrest. A group called Friends of Forrest built the original
monument, and now the group is planning to lay concrete for a new foundation,
add a new bust of the KKK founder, enclose the monument in a wrought iron gate,
and add night lighting.
Malika
Sanders-Fortier is a community leader in Selma, and when she heard about the
plan for the monument she was outraged. Malika is proud of her city's place in
history, and she thinks that monuments celebrating violent racism and
intolerance have no place in this country, let alone in a city like Selma, where
the families of those attacked by the Klan still live.
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