Tennessee Petition Calls To Replace All Confederate Statues With Dolly Parton
There’s an online petition asking the Tennessee governor and legislators to erect statues of Dolly Parton in place of Confederate soldiers; the petition has gathered more than 14,000 signatures.
The petition on change.org reads in part, “Tennessee is littered with statues memorializing Confederate officers. History should not be forgotten, but we need not glamorize those who do not deserve our praise. Instead, let us honor a true Tennessee hero, Dolly Parton.”
Governor Bill Lee did not immediately respond to requests for comment this week, but there have been efforts to replace symbols of the Confederacy with Ms. Parton before.
In December, a Republican legislator proposed building a statue of Ms. Parton in place of a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate general, slave trader and leader of the Ku Klux Klan, that looms prominently in the Tennessee statehouse. The statue remains.
Lynn Sacco, a professor of history at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, told the New York Times, “Dolly Parton is the one person in Tennessee that everyone agrees on. One of my students called her the ‘Jesus of Appalachia.’”
Sacco added, “I think she understands that she has fans across the political spectrum and knows that you don’t want to alienate anyone. Dolly just loves everyone and wants everyone to be happy and well taken care of. It makes it sound like she’s not doing enough but I think she does what she can in her way.”
At press time, the petition is closing in on 15,000 signatures.
