Tennessee State Senator Adam Lowe (R-Calhoun) introduced a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would block the Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) from recommending the removal or destruction of any property deemed to be of historical, architectural, or cultural significance to Tennesseans.
Senate Bill 7 (SB 7) would limit the authority of the THC to the approval or recommendation of “certain renovations or alterations” to property deemed significant, according to its summary. It would also prohibit the commission “from taking adverse action,” such as fines, against properties boasting statues or monuments the THC wants removed.
The text of the bill would specifically bar the THC from recommending a renovation, alteration, or demolition of any “improved public or private real property” in Tennessee. It would also ban the agency from seeking to impose fines or penalties from property owners who refuse to comply with the THC’s requests.
Instead, under SB7, the commission would be limited to approving or recommending changes to historic properties that affect their “aesthetics, non-structural elements, and building design elements,” with the last category limited to properties placed on Tennessee’s register of historic places.
Lowe’s effort to curtail the powers assigned to the THC comes years after the commission controversially voted in support of the removal of the bust of Confederate figure Nathan Bedford Forrest (pictured here) from the Tennessee State Capitol, with 25 of the commission’s 26 members voting to remove it.
Their decision prompted celebration from State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville), who was then an activist leading protests calling for the bust’s removal.
“What I’ve always told people … is that that symbol for us was a symbol just like those ‘colored’ and ‘white’ signs that say ‘you are not welcome here,’ that ‘you are not equal here,” said Jones after the bust was removed in June 2021. “And so we brought the symbol down, but what it represents is still up, and that’s what we’re going to continue to organize around.”
After voting to remove the bust, legislation was filed in 2021 to vacate the commission and fill it with new members, but that legislation never made it past committees in the Tennessee General Assembly.
More recently, the THC sided with those seeking to preserve a confederate monument in Nashville’s Centennial Park in 2021, determining the Metro Nashville government failed to provide an argument that would compel it to relocate the statue.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Sam Davis Statue” by Pn219 CC BY-SA 4.0.
I support this 100%. The Council on American/Islamic Relations wants to rid our great state of everything, repeat everything Confederate. Please support this bill. Help save our great state’s real history.
This is why History, esp American History, must ne taught to our children in a factual way. People, including black plantation owners, had slaves to work their farms. In return they were given shelter & food. The times were different. Slavery was legal. The Civil War did not start bc of slavery. It began bc the Yankees wanted Southerners, who utilized slaves, to pay additional taxes.
The South decided to secede from the Union.
There were great heroes during those horrific years on both sides of the war.
They should be revered for their many accomplishments in America.
PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON is one of those American Heroes, who saved America from the British Army, when they once again tried to take down America at the BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS.
No one is perfect, but some people accomplish things that perfect people may not ever be able to accomplish.
So I , as a lifelong Tennessee resident, taxpayer, voter & constituent, am in favor of leaving Historical monuments the hell alone. The THC has way too much power when it comes to those important decisions.
I believe President Donal J Trump is one of those amazing History making people that I’d like to see a monument to honor him in Tennessee. Nane streets & buildings in his honor.
If we do not limit the power of tge THC, they could recommend a monument to a repeat criminal like George Floyd.
I am for this law . The council on American/Islamic relations wants to remove ALL things Confederate in our great state. Please support this law.
“…hat symbol for us was a symbol just like those ‘colored’ and ‘white’ signs that say ‘you are not welcome here…”
Another leftist who doesn’t know history. After the War, Forrest spent a lot of time and effort helping newly-freed black people, and enormous numbers of black folks turned out for his funeral.