Governor Names 2 Appointees To Tennessee Historical Commission Ahead Of Vote On Monument Removal

Gov. Bill Lee has named two new appointees to the Tennessee Historical Commission as the group is set to make a major decision on monument removal.

Doris McMillan is filling the vacancy created by the recent death of chairman Reavis Mitchell, a noted historian from Fisk University. McMillan works at a private Christian school in Franklin and has been a professional seamstress for celebrities and musicians from Beyoncé to Naomi Judd.

Cato Johnson is a Memphis healthcare executive and the chairman of the TennCare Advisory Committee. Both McMillian and Johnson are African American. Their appointments bring the number of Black members of the Tennessee Historical Commission up to four. There is also a Native American member. The remaining 25 appointees and automatic slots from the Lee administration are white.

Lee has made a point of naming Black officials to these posts, including those recently made to the State Capitol Commission. The group voted this week to move three busts of military figures, including Confederate general and early KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest, out of the Capitol and into the Tennessee State Museum. But the ultimate decision rests with the Tennessee Historical Commission which could take up the matter as soon as October. The group is meeting today but the agenda was set before the State Capitol Commission’s vote.

In recent years, the Tennessee Historical Commission has overwhelmingly voted no to requests for removal or renaming. The city of Memphis found a legal loophole to get around the commission’s rejection of a request to remove Confederate statues in 2017, but the Republican supermajority in state legislature has since strengthened the legal framework around the Heritage Protection Act.

That law was passed in 2013 and greatly expanded the commission’s powers, broadening the items under its purview and making it more difficult for communities or organizations, including the State Capitol Commission, to make decisions on their own. The move was spurred by a nationwide backlash against Confederate memorials and symbols in the aftermath of a racially motivated massacre at a church in South Carolina.