Williamson County could be one step closer to removing the Confederate battle flag from its county seal after a hearing by the Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) Friday morning.
March 12, 2021
Retired Capitol Hill reporter Tom Humphrey for years wrote a column called Humphrey on the Hill. In his stead, Sam Stockard am taking up the mantle with a new report called Stockard on the Stump, a collection of briefs, anecdotes and quotes from the latest week in the Tennessee General Assembly.
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With the FBI prowling the Capitol complex, legislative leaders are trying to tamp down on financial irregularities, including things that resemble money laundering.
Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton confirmed this week they brought legislation designed to keep lawmakers from doing business with the state, mainly other legislators campaigns.
Gov. Bill Lee now has permission to remove from the Tennessee state Capitol the bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a process he has pursued much of the last year despite resistance from the legislature, which continues to push back against the statue s relocation.
25 to 1 in favor of relocating the Forrest bust to the Tennessee State Museum, the alternative venue for a monument to the early Ku Klux Klan leader that members of the African American community and anti-racist advocates have sought for years.
The meeting lasted more than five hours as commissioners heard testimony from 30 speakers, the vast majority of them in favor of relocating the bust. Historians, pastors, activists and other interested citizens were among those who remained on the line of the virtual meeting for hours waiting to speak, as they have during past meetings of the Capitol and Historical commissions.