[VICE NEWS]
[TRIPLE HATE PART 2 OF 4]
Good morning! Welcome, welcome, welcome!
[MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE] You know it's 10 o'clock, and you know what time it is.
It's time for you to come into my office, stretch out on the couch,
and let's talk about it.
Today we have a great one for you.
The topic is the renaming of the parks.
City council has decided that the parks are named after some people
that they feel that has done some African Americans bad
in this community.
Then there are some saying, "man, that was history"
they had nothing to do with that.
But, last time we had somebody protest, called the KKK,
it didn't go too good, and coming this Saturday,
they're gonna be in Memphis, protesting the fact that, hey,
leave them parks alone. We know what it represents to us.
And we feel it should not change."
And there are some rumors that the gangs here in Memphis are gonna say,
"We gonna keep the klan at hand."
Well, whichever way it goes,
I'd like to know, how do you feel about it?
-How many minutes I gotta to be talked on before we can hang up?
You got your 90 seconds.
But you didn't get 14 minutes, come on, bumblebee.
Get in and get out.
-I don't care nothin' about that park.
-Keep that park right there.
That's how you feel?
Alright, Bumblebee, I'ma keep it goin'.
You got your second.
Appreciate ya, man.
Gentlemen, let's not even put any hesitation to this.
The founder of the Ku Klux Klan,
was Nathan Bedford Forrest, and they've named the park after -
I think that's the biggest issue with some Memphians.
Well that's part of the education that needs to occur, because Gen. Forrest
was not the founder of the Ku Klux Klan,
[LEE MILLAR (SVC) SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS SPOKESPERSON] It had existed for over a year before he allegedly ever got involved in it,
so Forrest was not the founder of the Klan.
And in fact, the Klan of the 1860's is very different from the Klan of today.
It's upsetting that...
people would attack history and try to erase history like this.
It takes education to learn about somebody from 150 years in our past.
And the more people know, that they get educated about our past,
the better off they are.
When the Ku Klux was formed,
they created it as a social club to start with.
Tennessee at that time was ruled by a tyrannical carpetbagging governor.
And he had tripled the taxes, so these ex-Confederates
thought that they had better do something about it,
so they dressed up in sheets and curtains
one night and ran him out of town.
They restored law and order to Pulaski, TN.
Well, this caught on, and the next town did the same thing.
They were also protecting the black farmers who were losing their land,
so it wasn't an anti-black thing whatsoever in the 1860's.
After it had gone on for over a year, the Klan had spread so widely,
that they needed someone who could really organize the Klan.
And they voted in General Forrest as president of the Klan.
At that same point, the Klan started turning violent,
some of the guys were taking the law into their own hands.
And so, Bedford Forrest ordered that the Klan be disbanded, and it was,
so in 1869, the Ku Klux Klan disappeared.
This was the initial-
This was the first - right, the first Klan.
Then, around the time of World War I,
jobs were scarce, you had the Great Depression,
and the white guys figured out that if you scared the black guys out of town
there would be more jobs.
Generally speaking, blacks are more scared of ghosts than other people.
So it became an economic tool for the Klan to resurrect itself.
-Is the word scare a bit... A bit, uh...
Well, "scare" might be a little bit light.
-Yeah, a little light, I think.
There may have been some lynchings then,
but that's where it first had gotten into little terrorist activities.
And then the Klan disappeared by 1933,
and was gone until the 1950's and 60's,
then when segregation came about, then the third Klan arose.
And they were specifically to fight black civil rights
and to oppose federal intervention.
And they really developed the scare tactics
just to terrorize the black residents.
And that's unfortunately the Klan that we have today,
is more of a terrorist group.
Do you think the city council's engaging in revisionist history?
Oh yes, I certainly do.
They're trying to eliminate these three Civil War parks,
which is part of American history, Memphis history certainly,
and it's certainly upon the shoulders of city council
that the Klan is coming to Memphis for a rally.
And it's unfortunate,
because it's going to give Memphis a further black eye.
It was the Memphis City Council who spearheaded the decision to change
the name of Forrest Park.
Two council-members in particular, Janis Fullilove and Myron Lowry,
were extremely vocal about the reasons for the renaming.
Why do we have to put up with what we have seen for decades and decades?
[JANIS FULLILOVE SUPER DISTRICT 8, POSITION 2] That's just a reminder of how evil
some people had been towards my people and other people.
I marched with Dr. King back in 1968,
got shot at by a Memphis police officer,
the only thing that saved me, I had a hairpiece on my head
and a big old hole was in it,
and we don't need them, we're a progressive city, we're moving forward
The decision to change these parks names,
I mean is there any responsibility to bear on the council?
I take the blame. Even though I've got death threats, they gonna hang me,
"nigga, we gonna get you," Fine!
Is that what the Klan is - they're calling you
I don't know if it was the Klan. -Somebody.
Somebody, yeah. I was gonna be hung. OK, so what, hang me.
But I'm still going to stand for that which is right,
even if I have to stand by myself.
But fortunately, there were 12 others that stood with me.
I've referred to the Klan as a terrorist organization.
[MYRON LOWERY SUPER DISTRICT 8, POSITION 3] In fact, I call them the American Taliban.
Change produces controversy, and that's what we have in this case.
People, many people, don't want to change.
They want to live in the past with the memories that they have.
Well no one is trying to change history,
we're only trying to add on to history.
Mr. Castoro, US Grant. -Nice to meet you, General Grant.
Why don't you come in? -Yes, hello.
This is my wife, Julia. Julia, this is Mr. Rocco Castoro.
Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Grant.
-Welcome to our home. Thank you for having me.
Julia graciously agreed to join us briefly.
That's wonderful.
Memphis is a weird but magical place.
And is apparently home to a wormhole that allowed me to travel back in time
to meet Union general and former president, Ulysses S. Grant,
A.K.A., Dr. EC Fields, to get his opinion on the controversy.
Councilwoman Fullilove does not know her history, and that's someone who
[DR. E.C. FIELDS, JR GENERAL U.S. GRANT, SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS] has the position, "don't confuse me with the truth,
I've got my mind made up."
General Forrest, he was supportive of negro, black, rights.
In fact, in 1875, he came out and said strongly, that he felt that blacks
should be admitted to the bar to practice law.
He had earlier said that blacks should be able to go as far as their
capabilities could take them.
I never met General Forrest personally,
I know something of his history that I may be able to tell you.
General Forrest was a military genius.
He was the only man in the Civil War, and indeed, the only man in history,
who rose from a private soldier to lieutenant general in the same war.
His movements, his tactics, his efforts, are still studied at the
United States Military Academy.
So General Forrest, to me, is exemplary of someone who was
one of the most effective combat leaders in military history.
That's Chief, he's Chief Duck. So we call him Chief.
What will you be doing on Saturday when the rally is happening?
I will be here, in the 21st century, I will be here on my deck,
looking at my ducks on the lake.
I will place myself as far away as I possibly can
from what's going on downtown.
And I urge everyone to stay away from that.
Don't give anybody, be it the Klan or the Crips, an audience.
[VICE CONTINUED IN PART 3 © 2011 VICE MEDIA, INC.]