Focus on Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue and analyze the Design.
The monument was designed by Jack Kershaw, a Vanderbilt University alumnus, co-founder of the League of the South (a white nationalist and white supremacist organization) a member of The General Joseph E. Johnston Camp 28 Sons of Confederate Veterans, and a former lawyer to James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. In the face of public criticism of the installation, Kershaw defended the statue by saying, "Somebody needs to say a good word for slavery."Bill Dorris, friend of Kershaw and owner of the statue, told NPR in 2011: "As an artist, mediocre. As a thinker, he (Kershaw) was way ahead of a lot of people in his time." Dorris described Kershaw's process of sculpting: "Jack got some materials that I use to make bathtubs with. And he started with a butcher knife. That's the end result that you see out there right now." Kershaw told an interviewer that his Forrest is "crying 'Follow me!'"The cartoonish character representing Forrest on the molded polyurethane sculpture was displayed on a rearing horse while both pointing a gun in his left hand in a direction behind him (presumably, at either his own or Union troops) and a sword in the right hand. The horse section of the statue was covered in gold leaf, while the section of the statue representing Forrest is covered in silver leaf. The statue itself was 25 feet tall.
gold leaf polyurethane Sons of Confederate Veterans silver Joseph E. Johnston League of the South Confederate Jack Kershaw white supremacist assassin James Earl Ray white nationalist Martin Luther King Jr. Vanderbilt University