NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee now says he's in favor of changing a law that requires the state to honor Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
Lee tweeted on Monday that while it's his job to enforce the law, he plans on working to change a decades-old statute requiring governors to sign a proclamation designating July 13 as "Nathan Bedford Forrest Day."
Lee's statement Monday comes days after he faced national backlash for not only signing the proclamation last week, but also declining to answer if he thought the law should change. High-profile Republicans and Democrats criticized the signing.
Forrest was a Confederate cavalry general who had amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader in Memphis before the Civil War.