SELMA, Ala. (AP) _ Members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are protesting a new monument, honoring Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.
WAKA-TV (http://bit.ly/RQTBVx ) reports that protesters filled Selma's Old Live Oak Cemetery on Friday. Protesters are appalled by the new monument that honors Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Charles Steele, the CEO of the SCLC, calls the monument “negative imagery that we will not tolerate.''
Patricia Godwin, a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, says the organization is supporting the project. She says the project started after a bronze bust of Forrest was stolen earlier this year.
The group was granted a building by the Selma City Council, but Sen. Hank Sanders says that is only to rebuild the existing memorial.
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