Focus on this artwork and discuss the History.
Kenneth P'pool, who chaired the Nathan Bedford Forrest Bust Committee of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 1973 (P'pool reportedly also earlier supported the candidacy of George Wallace for president in 1968), the late Tennessee state Senator and Sons of Confederate Veterans Joseph E. Johnston Camp 28 member Douglas Henry (D-Nashville), and the late Civil War expert and collector Lanier Merrit are attributed with heading up the project to install a bust representing Nathan Bedford Forrest inside the Tennessee General Assembly building. Henry first proposed Joint Resolution 54 (1973) in the Tennessee Senate calling for a bust of Confederate Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest to be installed within the state capitol, which passed on April 13, 1973.Forrest has been considered by many of his advocates to be an iconic Southern hero of the American Civil War because of his reported military exploits, including his saving "Rome (Georgia) from a raid by Union military". However, Forrest is also known for his antebellum career as a slave trader, for commanding the Massacre at Fort Pillow, and for his eventual role as the Grand Wizard of the first era Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction era of United States history.Fundraising for the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust was generated from the sale of 24″ × 30″ reproductions of a Forrest portrait at the Travellers Rest, a historic plantation in the Nashville area. The portrait by Joy Garner had been commissioned in 1973 for Travellers Rest by the Joseph E. Johnston camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The bust was eventually designed by Loura Jane Herndon Baxendale, whose husband Albert Hatcher Baxendale, Jr., was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.The Nathan Bedford Forrest bust was cast by the Karkadoulias Bronze Art Foundry in Cincinnati, Ohio, and installed in the Tennessee State Capitol on November 5, 1978.
Reconstruction era Rome Massacre at Fort Pillow Sons of Confederate Veterans Joseph E. Johnston Tennessee State Capitol Travellers Rest George Wallace Tennessee General Assembly Loura Jane Herndon Baxendale Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest Nashville Douglas Henry Ohio Tennessee Senate Cincinnati Ku Klux Klan Bust Cincinnati, Ohio