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Politician Sunk By Southern Hero Statue

May 14, 2008

Back in 2005, controversy flared in Memphis, Tennessee over a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Civil rights activists wanted to banish the statue of the ex-Confederate general and KKK founder from the city. At the time, UPI reported that two mayors in nearby Mississippi had offered to take the statue if it were exiled and erect it in their towns.

Fast forward to 2008. One of those mayors, Republican Greg Davis, was trying to get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. It seemed like a sure thing; the district had voted 62 percent for George W. Bush in 2004. But on the eve of the election, the Democrats mailed a flier to every black voter in the district, reminding them of Davis’s offer. The results surprised nearly everyone; Davis lost, and by a healthy margin.

The Republicans cried foul, claiming that the Democrats had twisted the facts. But the Republican version of the story wasn’t much better. They claimed that Davis had only offered his town as the home of a SECOND controversial Memphis statue, that of Jefferson Davis, the ex-president of the Confederacy and flip-flopper on experimental camel technology (but no family relation to ex-Mayor Davis, as far as we know).

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