Forest Hills residents react to Confederate street renaming ruling
FOREST HILLS, Tenn. (WKRN) — The City of Forest Hills is one step closer in an attempt to rename six streets named after Confederate leaders.
Walter Bentley said that he has fond memories of growing up in the neighborhood after moving to one of those streets with his family in 1969.
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"I remember riding bicycles through this area when it was just cow pastures," Bentley told News 2. "I just think it's a great place and I've enjoyed living here for all these years."
Throughout the neighborhood, roads have names like Robert E. Lee Drive and Jefferson Davis Court. Recently, the City of Forest Hills filed suit appealing a decision from the Tennessee Historical Commission, which said the city could not change the names because they were "memorials" protected under the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act .
Last week, a judge sided with the city and found that the streets were not memorials. That means that Forest Hills could once again ask the Tennessee Historical Commission to change the names.
"We just want to see the removal of all the remnants of the legacy of the legacy of the confederacy," said Ibrahim Hooper with the Council for American-Islamic Relations . "These were people who supported white supremacy, slavery [and] racism."
However, that's not how Bentley sees it.
"My father was from the north, my mother from the south, so I have ancestors that were on both sides," Bentley added.
Bentley urged city leaders not to move forward with changing the street names.
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"Growing up here, being from the south was something to be proud of," Bentley said. "And while I understand completely that slavery was a terrible thing, I feel like there's no reason to erase the history of the south."
News 2 reached out to the Tennessee Historical Commission for comment and did not hear back. The City of Forrest Hills and their city attorney said they couldn't comment.
