“Background really should not be neglected, but we need not glamorize those people who do not have earned our praise,” the petition states. “In its place, permit us honor a true Tennessee hero, Dolly Parton.”
There has been renewed national debate about Accomplice memorials as difficulties of race and racism have taken middle phase pursuing the demise of George Floyd at the fingers of Minneapolis law enforcement.
Parsons shared a latest update on the petition: “Although the strategy of replacing all of all those monuments with Dolly Parton may perhaps look humorous, the record of people monuments is everything but.”
“The large greater part of these monuments to the confederacy were being built in immediate opposition to the reconstruction and civil rights actions of the early 20th century and the 60’s and 70’s,” he wrote. “Memorials to the Confederacy had been meant, in part, to obscure the terrorism necessary to overthrow Reconstruction, and to intimidate African Us citizens politically and isolate them from the mainstream of community lifestyle.”
In its place, Parsons wrote, he’d somewhat honor Parton — whose “philanthropic heart has unquestionably transformed the planet for the superior.”
“From the Dollywood basis that has furnished publications and scholarships to millions of American young children, to the tens of millions of dollars she has donated to dozens of organizations this sort of as the Pink Cross and COVID-19 research centers, Dolly Parton has provided additional to this state and this point out than individuals confederate officers could at any time have hoped to get away,” the petition reads.
“As a Tennessean, it helps make me ill that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil factors. Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were being DESPICABLE figures in our point out background and should be addressed as this sort of,” she tweeted.
Parsons’ petition had garnered more than 6,200 signatures by Monday afternoon. CNN has arrived at out to reps for Parton for comment.
