(07-19-2019, 01:23 PM)flsprtsgod Wrote: In time of great strife may we hear and enact the words contained herein. I, for one, would have it no other way.

Ladies and Gentlemen I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is any one on God's earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate every man to depress none.  I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going. I have not said anything about politics today. I don't propose to say anything about politics. You have a right to elect whom you please; vote for the man you think best, and I think, when that is done, you and I are freemen. Do as you consider right and honest in electing men for office. I did not come here to make you a long speech, although invited to do so by you. I am not much of a speaker, and my business prevented me from preparing myself. I came to meet you as friends, and welcome you to the white people. I want you to come nearer to us. When I can serve you I will do so. We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment. Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict. Go to work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly, and when you are oppressed I'll come to your relief. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this opportunity you have afforded me to be with you, and to assure you that I am with you in heart and in hand. - N.B. Forrest, Speech to the Pole-Bearers Association. July 5, 1875

I appreciate the intent behind the sharing of this expression.

However, the person you chose to quote here is perhaps the WORST person you could have possibly chosen to convey these thoughts, and serves to undermine the very sentiments you wish to convey.

He owned slaves, fought for the Confederacy, massacred blacks at Fort Pillow, and founded the Ku Klux Klan, which has worked to make the lives of blacks and other minorities in this country absolute hell for more than a century.  Even in making this "conciliatory" speech, he managed to make the southern man the victim.

Assuming the sentiments expressed here are the legitimate utterings of a penitent man, these words ring hollow in the face of the harm he has done-either prior to his conversion or after.  It speaks volumes that the defiant segregationists here renamed the school after Nathan B. Forrest in an act of defiance of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education case

May Nathan B. Forrest rot in hell.

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