Park Place

Yesterday was a day for trips to see Stax and Sun Studios, one of many trips we take with the honors inquiry class at Southwest Tennessee Community College. The day was beautiful, the sun was shining and the air was jacket-weather cool. Between trips to Stax and Sun, our class had a few minutes to glance at the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue and its surrounding park. Because of a conflicting schedule I did not make the Stax tour, I did however get to spend a little over an hour at Forrest Park before trekking half a block west to Sun Studios.

Travelling west on Union Avenue I caught my first glimpse of Forrest Park. Turning right onto S. Dunlap Street and driving the perimeter to the opposite side of the park and our parking destination on S. Manassas Street, I noticed the University of Tennessee Medical Center and its student and research facilities are located across the street from the park. The area looks like a fairly clean part of town, businesses are in operation, students and resident doctors are cutting through the park wearing hospital identifications and lab coats. A young man was using the parks walkways for jogging; another was leaning against the Forrest statue and reading a book, while another monetarily-challenged gentleman was taking an afternoon nap on a park bench.

After an awesome job parallel-parking, I emerged from the car and stepped across the park’s sidewalk boundary and into its overgrowth of weeds, grass, and wild onions. The bushes looked sickly and the trees were pruned poorly. As we closed in on the resting place of the remains of the old lieutenant general and his wife, I walked on unkempt grass and along a sidewalk that seemed to have aged as poorly as the rest of the park. The steps leading to the monument were cracked and chunked (larger than chipped) and the statue’s marble pedestal was lightly dissolved, like a sugar cube, from 107 years of harsh Memphis weather. The park features signs describing Forrest, history, and Forrest Park. These signs seemed to be the only thing maintained in the entirety of the area. Another set of signs in the park were for exercise and included a pull-up bar, parallel bars, and a weathered and splintered bench for stretching exercises.

With all the potential this park has, it makes me wonder what happened and why. Was the monument of Forrest the reason for this parks downfall? Forrest’s history is notably tainted with his KKK involvement. When I looked up at the statue and saw the Star Spangled Banner flying high, Yankee or not, I saw progress. I saw honor and not shame. Sure there is a monument of a racist monster in a park of a city with predominantly black citizens, but the flag of freedom flies higher than Forrest’s statue and free black men and women walk above the catacomb of a relic of the old South.

I see a beautiful park that has been neglected. This park should be cleaned up and used to its full potential. If not I think that it would make a great site for a new research facility for UT Medical. The building could be built around Forrest’s tomb. Perhaps it could be named Forrest Park UT Medical Research Center, not in honor of Forrest, but in honor of the beautiful park that was once there.