Memphis asks judge to rule on removal of Confederate statue

A Tennessee city is asking a court to overrule a commission’s decision that prevents the removal of a Confederate statue from a public park.

The city of Memphis filed a petition in Davidson County Chancery Court on Monday. Officials are asking for judicial review of the Tennessee Historical Commission’s Oct. 13 denial of a request to remove a statue of Confederate-era leader Nathan Bedford Forrest from Health Sciences Park.

Forrest was a slave trader, Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader who became influential in the city’s growth after the Civil War. Cities have tried to remove Confederate monuments following the racially motivated murders of nine people at a black church in South Carolina and a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.