TN Board of Education Clarifies “Removal” Of Nathan Bedford Forrest From Eighth-Grade Curriculum
Image Credit: Public Domain
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
The Tennessee State Board of Education (SBE) has clarified that although historical figure Nathan Bedford Forrest may be up for removal from Tennessee’s eighth-grade social studies standards, the controversial name would still be covered in high school.
By legislative mandate, the SBE is conducting a thorough review of Tennessee’s current K-12 social studies standards.
This process began back in June 2022 and consisted of asking members of the public to share their thoughts on the matter through a survey that was put out by the board. Around 115,000 public feedback comments were garnered from the survey.
In September 2022, an advisory team of twenty-one Tennessee educators from across the state was created and about a month later, a standards development committee of eight people was tasked with reviewing the advisory team’s work.
A second round of about 100,000 public feedback comments was gathered earlier this year.
According to the SBE, proposed revisions are set to be brought up in Nashville this August before the Standard Recommendations Commendation Committee (SRC), a group of individuals appointed by Gov. Bill Lee, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, and Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton.
The SCR will then submit their final recommendations which will go in front of the SBE in November on first reading and again for a final reading in February 2024.
District implementation of these finalized standards will start with the 2026-2027 school year.
Under Tennessee’s current standards, eighth-grade students are taught a standard that “Explains the opportunities for and restrictions placed on freedmen, including: racial segregation, black codes, the efforts of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the emergence of vigilante actions by the Ku Klux Klan.”
However, a recommendation by the twenty-one-member educator advisory team has suggested moving some of this content from eighth-grade curriculum to high school level curriculum instead.
If this recommendation is approved by the SRC and the SBE, students in grades 9-12 would be instructed in a standard which requires students to “Identify the influences of Tennesseans during the Civil War, including: Sam Davis, Isham Harris, William Driver, Andrew Johnson, David Farragut, Sam Watkins, and Nathan Bedford Forrest.”
The SBE has communicated several other proposed standards which would also cover Nathan Bedford Forrest and his influence on Tennessee history.
These standards require the following: “Summarize the major events of Reconstruction, and explain the impact of the Compromise of 1877, including the founding of the Ku Klux Klan and lynching,” and “Evaluate the effects of the Reconstruction Amendments, including southern resistance (e.g., black codes, disenfranchisement, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan).”
The social studies SRC plans to continue meeting on a non-deliberative and deliberative basis. Deliberative meetings will be open to the public and minutes from those meetings will be made public as well.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
So they don’t want to teach both sides of history. Stop turning our state into a liberal 💩 hole! Do these people even consult parents or the citizens?
History is history. It does not matter what your thoughts are…it is still history. The schools are not doing students justice when it comes to teaching history.
What is wrong with our State, we;re going back to the Dark Ages.
Do not forget to cover the Union League and carpetbaggers.
I’m a conservative and a student of Civil War era history. Why do we want schools to teach about Nathan Bedford Forrest? He was a Slave Trader who massacred hundreds of surrendered troops in 1864 at the Battle of Fort Pillow, he was a Slave Trader (not just an owner – a Trader) and founded the KKK. How does it help the conservative cause for kids to know that? Do we want to try to claim > “He was a good Conservative?” He was a terrible person who caused harm to the U.S.
I’m sure the Leftists will enjoy teaching kids about him. Wikipedia says >
“In April 1864, in what has been called “one of the bleakest, saddest events of American military history”, troops under Forrest’s command at the Battle of Fort Pillow massacred hundreds of surrendered troops, composed of black soldiers and white Tennessean Southern Unionists fighting for the United States.”
Think about how things are going to unfold. Can you defend Nathan Bedford Forrest? Do you really want schools to teach that he was a typical conservative? He was a terrible person.
Hold up Republican Abraham Lincoln as a great conservative, not Forrest. Don’t make it easy for the Leftists.
You are totally ignorant of that incident at Fort Pillow . There are other more creditable versions of that story .The Black Yankee Soldiers were given a chance to surrender but they were so drunk at Sherman’s Supply Depot that they kept on firing their rifles and exposing their backsides to insult the brave Confederate Soldiers who wanted the fighting to cease. They never put down their arms but fled to the river bank with many still resisting . Their stupidity got them killed , NOT by General Forrest’s men that wanted the fighting to stop. What you are spouting off with is just more Marxist Yankee Government BS.
And another thing … Lincoln was no honorable man !!! He was a War Criminal who brought Marxism to the US . Don’t believe me ? Type in a search about ” The Forty Eighters “. They were Marxist Socialist that the European Monarchs kicked out of Europe and Lincoln made many of them Yankee Generals and members of his Cabinet . That was how Communism was first introduced in America starting in 1848 . He was a hypocrite about racial issues also. He had no regard for Black race ; in fact he was a racist . Read what the criminal actually said in his own words and get your facts straight . I could go on and on about this monster .
The so called ” Republican ” president Lincoln was in actuality more or less what the so called ” Democrat ” Party has become today . Liars , murderers , criminals ,thieves , and hypocrites. I would suggest that the Establishment Republicans stop with their nonsensical Lincoln was an angel BS and actually study just what that reprobate and war criminal actually said and did … not what you would like to spin it as .
Just another attempt to smear the South with WOKE BS . General Forrest was a Military genius and a brave Southern Freedom Fighter . BTW he did not start the KKK . The KKK was started because of crimes being committed against Southerners by the Yankee occupiers who would not allow the South to have their own local government during military occupation of the South .History has to be preserved and told as it really was . The civilians were helpless against the occupier’s crimes and the KKK was created in the beginning to represent and protect the people being preyed upon by the Yankees . The Communists want to erase our history and smear our Southern Heroes . I for one will not put up with it and I am proud to be from the South and I want the record to be set straight .
Stupidity is never ending. Wonder if the ever have seen the History of who started the KKK? Democrats. Who was the First Slave owner in the U.S.? A Black Man. This will never see the light of day in a History class. You can tear down history but it will not CHANGE it!!
Why is it , that they teach nothing about Freemason , which is / believed , by a great many , to be that which has been the major controlling entity of our government .
Surely there are some facts s o m e w h e r e ? about what these people do , and NO , our founding fathers were NOT Freemasons ; This would be more TRUTHFUL , because most research reveals that only about 34% were Freemason .
SO JULY 4 , is approaching , what will we really be celebrating…. delusional minds ? ¿
Andrew Johnson was:
https://www.wkrn.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/73/2020/09/Andrew-Jacksons-Hermitage.jpg
Davy Crockett was also:
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5176/5414227387_515e4b5c35_z.jpg
There’s another monument at his grave in Limestone.
Thank you, Ms. Kirchner, for this follow-up, explaining who’s behind NBF being removed from Tennessee’s eighth-graders’ social studies series, and why. It is a positive sign that most comments — except the fellow who cites Wikipedia’s hit piece — reveal disapproval of how and why Tennessee’s Board of Education is going along with his “removal.”
I have written Gov. Bill Lee repeatedly about rewriting history and culture removal. Any military figure shouldn’t be discredited. The deviant 2%, bottom-feeders have been allowed to go too far.
Good for you, Dianne. Apparently the organized 2% bottom-feeders and their collaborators in the teachers’ unions carry inordinate weight with the SBE against the unorganized 98% to impose standards that require the following:
“Summarize the major events of Reconstruction, and explain the impact of the Compromise of 1877, including the founding of the Ku Klux Klan and lynching,”
Forrest denounced the Klan in 1869, never had anything to do with lynchings, and died in disgrace in 1877, having had nothing to do with the unwritten Compromise that effectively ended abuses of Reconstruction.
So, Tennessee’s SBE will remove the great General Forrest from the teaching of its state’s history for being Politically Incorrect by its new standards and elevate Sam Davis, Isham Harris, William Driver, and Sam Watkins, whoever they were. I wonder how many horses, combined, were shot out from under those four during the CSA’s perfectly legal struggle to secede from Lincoln’s Union and enjoy a new nation?
According to SBE website
# 11 members one for each congressional district
$ Non paid position
@ email directly from website
+ there’s 4-5 scheduled public meetings this summer
!!! Lee has a record of Appointing marxist to education positions
= that means we individually have to run background checks on all Lee appointments. And make it public.
Dist 4, Warren Wells.
July-Favorite bumper sticker
“Don’t Kalifornicate my Tennessee”
The marxist NEA and wanna be associates have been under mining American education since 1918.
It’s time Tennessee stopped accepting tax funds from WDC, and stopped subsidizing so called edu- groups and unions.
Why do Tennesseans pay association fees for principles and such? I’d be willing to bet lousy Lamar started that one.
It’s time for incompetent McNally and a few other good ‘old boys to let go of the public teat and do one thing before getting out. MAKE TENNESSEE EDUCATION ENTIRELY STATE FUNDED.