Music
Taylor Swift advocated the removal of a KKK leader/Confederate general. She also applauded the removal of the statue of another racist, but less widely-known, figure from America’s history.
It’s upsetting that monuments honoring members of the Ku Klux Klan are still standing. Taylor Swift advocated the removal of a KKK leader/Confederate general. She also applauded the removal of the statue of another racist, but less widely-known, figure from America’s history.
Taylor Swift called a KKK/Confederate statue a ‘monstrosity’
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Nathan Bedford Forrest was a slave trader and Confederate general. He perpetrated the Fort Pillow massacre, a horrific event where between 277 and 295 people were murdered, most of whom were Black. He later became the first Grand Dragon of the KKK. A similarly racist historical figure was Edward Carmack. The Tennessee State Museum reports that he incited a mob to destroy the offices of Ida B. Wells, a civil rights activist who opposed lynching. Wells is mostly known today for being a Black feminist icon and for co-founding the NAACP.
During the George Floyd protests of 2020, the “Shake It Off” singer criticized a statue of Forrest that was still standing in her home state. According to CNN, she called the statue a “monstrosity.” “Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brutal slave trader and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who, during the Civil War, massacred dozens of Black Union soldiers in Memphis.”
Swift also attacked a statute of Carmack that had recently been removed. “As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things,” she said on Twitter. “Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were despicable figures in our state history and should be treated as such.”
Taylor Swift said these changes could only do so much
Swift advocated a more progressive approach to history. “We need to retroactively change the status of people who perpetuated hideous patterns of racism from ‘heroes’ to ‘villains,’” she wrote. “And villains don’t deserve statues.”
The “I Knew You Were Trouble” star was aware, however, that iconoclasm could only do so much. “Taking down statues isn’t going to fix centuries of systemic oppression, violence and hatred that Black people have had to endure but it might bring us one small step closer to making all Tennesseans and visitors to our state feel safe — not just the white ones,” she explained.
The hideous KKK statue was removed
Did Swift get her wish? She sure did! According to News Channel 5 Nashville, the Forrest statue was taken down in 2021. The statue had long been mocked for its appearance, which made Forrest look like a robot with his mouth agape riding a horse. On top of that, the horse looked worse than a carousel animal at the cheapest carnival in the world. In its place are a series of flags representing various states.
Swift isn’t the most political artist out there. Her catalog isn’t exactly filled with protest anthems, although “Only the Young” and “You Need to Calm Down” are exceptions. Regardless, she has still spoken out about her beliefs when she felt it was necessary. Who knows? Maybe someday there will be a statue of Swift in Tennessee. This country has unveiled more and more statues of pop culture icons in recent years.
Swift took on the Confederate States Army — and she managed to come out on top.
