VA official hangs portrait of the KKK's first grand wizard in DC's office. - Polidicks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/i-thought-it-was-very-nice-va-official-showcased-portrait-of-kkks-first-grand-wizard/2018/10/23/f49434ca-d6c0-11e8-aeb7-ddcad4a0a54e_story.html “It was just a beautiful print that I had purchased, and I thought it was very nice,” Thomas said. He said he knew of Forrest only “as a Southern general in the Civil War” and kept the portrait in his basement before decorating a new and larger office at VA’s administrative headquarters a few months ago. Thomas’s staff includes 14 managers, nine of whom are black. Racial tensions have flared between Thomas and several of his employees, at least three of whom have pending claims of racial discrimination against him. An attorney representing two of these employees said the portrait is evidence that Thomas is not comfortable around African Americans. “You don’t hire someone who puts a picture of the Klan in his office unless you’re” racially insensitive, said the lawyer, John Rigby. “He said, ‘My wife told me I shouldn’t put this picture up,’ ” pointing to the Forrest portrait,” Gardner-Ince recalled, “ ‘but I said, I don’t care; I like it.’ ” “It’s been there for a long time,” she said.

The article is so mad at this that it's literally shaking.

So this is the power of CSS, huh. That way no one can see his face.

He said he knew of Forrest only “as a Southern general in the Civil War” So you still knew he was a traitor and thought you should put up a picture of him.

.ec_iframely_root .ec_iframely .iframely-embed { max-height: 1005px; } Hacky.

Acc to the article he fully knew the dude was the head of the KKK. His wife told him it was a bad idea.

I would like to point out the Nathan Bedford Forrest also dissolved the KKK, denounced it, helped bring many of its members to justice (although he also denied having actually been in it in front of Congress and protected some of his personal friends in the process), and became a civil rights advocate at considerable personal cost. That is obviously not what this official is commemorating, but I don't think it's entirely fair or accurate to remember him as just the evil KKK man.

i used to know a cross country jogger named after him, nice guy

"I'm gonna put this one up in my office." "honey no, you're already being sued for being a racist." "bah what does she know."

He was also a very good cavalry commander during the American Civil War. Specifically; Forrest charged the brigade alone and soon found himself surrounded. He emptied his Colt Army revolvers into the swirling mass of Union soldiers and pulled out his saber, hacking and slashing. A Union infantryman on the ground beside Forrest fired a musket ball at him with a point-blank shot, nearly knocking him out of the saddle. The ball went through Forrest's pelvis and lodged near his spine. A surgeon removed the musket ball a week later, without anesthesia, which was unavailable. He would also order his cavalry to ride over the crest of a hill and then circle around a lower point unseen then crest the hilltop again, giving the impression to Union scouts of facing a much larger force than Forrest had. He would also drag large branches to pick up clouds of dust mimicking a large body of infantry marching towards the enemy flank. It's a shame we can't celebrate the pure military accomplishments someone made during the Civil War without breaking into arguments over racism and white supremacy, because there's a lot of amazing stories.