Conflicts over Confederate monuments are nothing new, especially in the South, but the conversation has changed this summer. Nationwide protests have pushed communities into a reckoning with their racist past.
Tennessean reporter Emily West says she’s seen a difference in the community she covers, Williamson County.
West has been updating the story of the city’s most prominent monument which is owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The group has unsuccessfully fought efforts to add African American history around the site, but it made a recent deal with the city to keep the nearly forty-foot-tall Confederate statue in place.
West spoke with WPLN’s Jason Moon Wilkins
Jason Moon Wilkins: You’ve been reporting on the conflicts over the Confederate monument in Franklin for a while. There was a recent deal between the city and the Daughters of the Confederacy that seemed to tie up that story in a way. But then there were protests last weekend. Can you tell us about who is behind those protests and what their feelings were about, maybe even the deal that was struck?
Emily West: It was Students for Black Empowerment, which is a really new group in Franklin. It’s basically high school and college students that are looking at Franklin and their community, and they have a lot of questions about why this monument is in the center of their town. There were tense times that happened, particularly with counter-protesters. And there was an armed gunman hired by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to stand with the monument. He was standing right behind the kids who were doing their presentations and talking about why they wish the Daughters of the Confederacy would move it to a cemetery. And that was their request. In talking with their attorney and doing my story previously, [I think] that will not happen.
JMW: One of your stories looked at the number of streets in Williamson county named after the Confederacy. You spoke with Pearl Bransford, Franklin’s only Black alderman. What did she have to say about the lasting impacts of Confederate memorials?
EW: She was really an interesting interview. I’d forgotten, actually, she lived on Granbury Street. And it wasn’t until I was doing research on this topic that I realized Granbury was actually a general that died during the Battle of Franklin. And so I called her and I asked, “What does it feel like to be a person of color living on a street named after a Confederate general?” And she had very impassioned statements about, “Why should we name things for the losing side of a cause?” There’s a subdivision in Franklin named for Nathan Bedford Forest. Roderick Square is named after his horse. But there are several places in Williamson County where the battle was not fought that has this lasting imprint of the Confederacy. And it’s been a very curious journey to figure out why.
JMW: When we look at Williamson County, which is predominately white and predominately Republican, it does seem to be moving in a slightly different direction than even other communities in the state — changing the name recently of the Franklin High School mascot away from the Rebels, reconsidering the county seal, which still has a rebel flag on it. What do you attribute that to?
EW: I attribute it to the moment in time that we’re in. This conversation about the seal happened briefly about five years ago. The conversation about the monument — should it be removed, should it be in the center of town — happened five years ago. But there’s now this new energy in our nation that is really compelling people to really look at the symbols and the imprints that we have and say, “Hey, should these be here?” I’m not sure where we’re going to go in the story of the Confederate monument. But as far as the seal goes, I think it’s very interesting that the business community is the one carrying the flag to say, “Hey, let’s really evaluate who we are and how we represent ourselves.”
JMW: Emily, I know you personally and the newspaper have received some backlash. Do you feel like it’s representative of a larger group or is it just some people who are angry? Is the community at large ready to have this broader conversation?
EW: I found it interesting that yesterday I was told I was a racist and bigot against the South. I’ve lived in the South my entire life. I’ve lived in the same 60-mile radius almost my entire existence. I’m southern to my core. But that doesn’t mean I can’t look at the South and go, OK, let’s look at all the complexities of it, and let’s talk about it.
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