In the culmination of a three and a half year legal fight, the Sons of Confederate Veterans began removing the pedestal that was once the foundation of a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis, TN.

They will also exhume his body and his wife’s, which are buried eight feet under the pedestal. {snip}

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Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer, who was a key figure in getting the statue removed, was on hand Tuesday to watch and speak to the media. A man who later identified himself as George Johnson, paced behind Sawyer waving a Confederate flag while calling her “a communist.”

Trouble began when Sawyer plucked multiple small Confederate flags sitting atop the fence cordoning off the statue and threw them on the ground. {snip}

The man then started singing Dixie Land behind Sawyer. He also called her a Communist repeatedly. pic.twitter.com/9kGbRDoZ8a

— Chris Luther (@cluther_wmc5) June 1, 2021

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