Fans of Dolly Parton Want Monuments of Her to Replace Confederate Statues in Tennessee

Dolly Parton fans are calling on her home state of Tennessee to replace all Confederate statues with a “monument” of the beloved Dolly.

At the time of writing this, over 16,000 signatures have been gathered on an online petition. The petition calls for the state’s officials to remove the “statues memorializing confederate officers” and “honor a true Tennessee hero, Dolly Parton.”

The petition states “History should not be forgotten, but we need not glamorize those who do not deserve our praise.”

“Aside from her beautiful music, which has touched the hearts and lives of millions of Americans, Dolly Parton’s philanthropic heart has unquestionably changed the world for the better,” it adds. “Let’s replace the statues of men who sought to tear this country apart with a monument to the woman who has worked her entire life to bring us closer together. “

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Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz is all for this!

Now this seems worthwhile: replace statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest—former delegate to 1860 Democrat National Convention, vicious slave trader & the founder of the KKK—with the great Dolly Parton. A win-win! https://t.co/PKGiBVXS8Z

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 15, 2020

Henry Winkler is another person who is for this movement!

Now that is RIght .. Dolly is a treasure https://t.co/v4AiH6wWQW

— Henry Winkler (@hwinkler4real) June 15, 2020

This petition came just a few days after Taylor Swift shared a statement on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

I’m asking the Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to please consider the implications of how hurtful it would be to continue fighting for these monuments. When you fight to honor racists, you show black Tennesseans and all of their allies where you stand, and you continue this cycle of hurt. You can’t change history, but you can change this. 🙏

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Jun 12, 2020 at 1:01pm PDT

“As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things,” Swift wrote. “Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such.”

The “Lover” songstress continued, “Taking down statues isn’t going to fix centuries of systemic oppression, violence and hatred that black people have had to endure but it might bring us one small step closer to making ALL Tennesseans and visitors to our state feel safe — not just the white ones.”

“We need to retroactively change the status of people who perpetuated hideous patterns of racism from ‘heroes’ to ‘villains,’ ” she said. “And villains don’t deserve statues.”

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