Reconstructing the Lost Cause in the Memphis City Parks Renaming Controversy

Abstract

This essay examines the rhetorical responses by citizens who opposed efforts to rename (Nathan Bedford) Forrest Park in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2005. Letters to the editor published in the city's primary newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, were examined and revealed a rhetorical reliance on tenets of the Lost Cause myth that ennobled Southern states following the Civil War. The findings reveal that this controversy's true consequence rests in the political control of Memphis's historical narrative. The Lost Cause's signification in these letters reaffirms White antebellum privilege by preserving and fortifying White historical narratives in light of the mid-20th century's Second Reconstruction.

Keywords:

• Commemoration
• Myth
• Public Memory
• Race
• Rhetoric

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the editor and reviewers for their insight and suggestions. The author also thanks Victoria Gallagher, Michael Osborn, Beauty Bragg, Sandra Godwin, Esther Lopez, and Katie Simon for their suggestions on previous versions of this essay. A version of this manuscript was presented at the Southern States Communication Association Conference in April, 2010 (Memphis, TN).

Notes

By the late summer of 2005, coverage of the renaming controversy in The Commercial Appeal dwindled, and the final letters to the editor published in 2005 on the renaming controversy appeared on August 27, knocked off the newspaper's pages by Hurricane Katrina. In 2008, a modified version of Herenton's plan transferred the maintenance of Forrest Park to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, which now nearly surrounds the park. The City of Memphis still owns Forrest Park, however (Connolly, 2008). In 2009, the Forrest Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans succeeded in having Forrest Park placed on the National Register of Historic Places. This action does not prevent an eventual name change; the park can still be renamed and the human remains moved and reinterred there. Doing so, however, cannot be accomplished with federal funds and would jeopardize its status on the National Register of Historic Places (Moore, 2009). While this move has not ended the possibility of a name change for Forrest Park, it has certainly complicated any future efforts.

Wilson (1980) sketches the development of racist attitudes that have transcended the time and place of its origination:

In Reconstruction Blacks, aided by Yankee carpetbaggers and Southern scalawags, began using freedom as license; they soon were threatening the civilization of the South. Ignorance and corruption were said to have dominated politics under Black rule, the indolence of Negro workers hampered the economic system, and Black crime and brutality threatened society itself. Without the bonds of slavery, the primitive nature of the Blacks was emerging. (p. 110)

Lacy (2010) has recently explored the manifestations of related attitudes in the public discourse of northern US citizens during the 1970s and 1980s.

To keep this notion alive, the “faithful servant” has been formally commemorated by Lost Cause proponents. See Schackel's (2003) discussion of the controversy surrounding the Heyward Shepherd “faithful slave” memorial in Harper's Ferry, WV.

While certainly not a Lost Cause apologist, Foster (1987) clearly attempts to minimize the myth's capacity to influence contemporary southern sociopolitical attitudes:

The New South of the twentieth century remains a land haunted by the ghosts of the Confederacy … . Sometimes they had supported the cause of reaction. They were not ancestral spirits who exercised constant or crucial influence, however. Rather, they were phantoms called forth from time to time by various people for differing purposes. The ghosts of the Confederacy had shaped the New South, but in the twentieth century they had become too elusive and ephemeral to define its identity. (p. 198)

Even if used only occasionally, I argue that the Lost Cause still retains its rhetorical clout.

The ambiguity of these 28 letters leaves them open to a range interpretations on the part of the reader regarding whether the author was decidedly for or against the renaming proposal. While I could infer from these letters the authors’ positions, for this study I opted to examine only those letters that explicitly speak out against renaming the parks.

Of the three themes, the argument for historical accuracy appeared in 31 letters. The pragmatism theme was found in 21 letters. Framing the subject as a political issue appeared in 22 letters. Occasionally a single letter contained more than one theme. The historical accuracy theme dominated from April through July. During the final two months the focus shifted to politics in response to a formal proposal considered by the Center City Council in July, Herenton's public statement, and Al Sharpton's and Jesse Jackson's involvement in the August protest rally. As one might expect, the letter writers opposed to the proposal increasingly framed the issue as a political ploy when politicians became more directly involved in the affair.

In 2000, 61.4% of the population within the Memphis city limits was African American while 34.4% was White (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). I believe it is reasonable to posit that the letter writers’ comments infer that the city's problems are primarily “Black” problems.

While other politicians such as Barbara Cooper, Jennifer Hagerman (both state representatives), and Steve Cohen (a state senator) were occasionally mentioned by letters writers, most of the commentary was aimed at Walter Bailey and Willie Herenton.

The practice of providing interpretive signage for controversial commemorative markers helped resolve the Heyward Shepherd monument controversy (Schackel, 2003).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark T. Vail

Mark T. Vail is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric in the Department of English and Rhetoric, Georgia College & State University.