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.
