Mississippi has a long, vile history of state-sponsored
racist terror against Blacks. The Southern state was once the hotbed of some of
the most notorious lynchings and race riots in the nation. Thus, many are
shocked at an attempt by a pro-Confederacy group in Mississippi to venerate Ku
Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest. The white supremacist Sons of
Confederate Veterans has embarked on an aggressive campaign to recognize
Klansman Forrest on a state-issued license plate.
Despite a laundry list of historical examples, supporters
of the license plate maintain that Forrest was not a racist. This is an
outrageous lie. “Grand Wizard” Forrest was a founder of the KKK, the
white supremacist group that unleashed decades of reactionary terror against
Blacks including violent demonstrations, lynch mobs, and fire bombings designed
to intimidate African American communities into submission. Forrest was also a
strategist for the slaveholding Confederacy during the 1864 massacre at Fort
Pillow, Tenn., which killed thousands of courageous Black Union soldiers.
The proposal by the Sons of Confederate Veterans is only
one of several other symbolic actions suggested by the group to honor the 11
Southern slaveholding states that seceded from the Union in 1860 and 1861.
Mississippians can already buy a license plate featuring the home of slavery
defender and president of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis.
In the past, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour supported the
creation of official holidays celebrating the history of the Confederacy.
Barbour, a probable Republican presidential contender, originally said that he
will not denounce the proposed license plate honoring Forrest. More
recently, on Feb. 21, in response to public outrage, Barbour has said he would
veto the measure to create a Forrest license plate.
Mississippi today is a rabidly anti-union stronghold,
where the legacy of white supremacy has driven a wedge between white and Black
workers. The KKK license plates have been proposed at a time when politicians,
who have no solution to poverty or unemployment, are scapegoating immigrants
and Black youth.
Mississippi’s poverty rate is among the highest in the
nation and it is one of the few remaining states without state minimum wage requirements on businesses. The
reluctance of state lawmakers to publicly condemn the KKK license plate is an
example of how racism is promoted in the U.S. to keep the multinational working
class fighting amongst ourselves rather than confronting Wall Street,
corporations and their politicians.
The Mississippi NAACP and other organizations are
protesting the proposed license plate and the adoration of Klan leaders like
Nathan Forrest. Such a symbolic celebration shows callous disregard for the
victims of white supremacist terror. It will take a militant movement in
Mississippi and across the country to defeat racism and oppression once and for
all.
