REPLACE THE EDWARD CARMACK STATUE WITH A STATUE OF IDA B. WELLS

On Saturday, May 30, 2020, during the first week of protests surrounding the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police, protesters in Nashville took matters into their own hands and toppled the statue of devout segregationist Edward W. Carmack. His statue stood in front of the State House since 1927, and its removal symbolizes our desire to purge our state of hateful shrines.

Edward Carmack was a newspaper publisher turned U.S. Senator in Nashville, Tennessee. He often incited violence against black Tennesseans in his paper, The Nashville Tennessean. On several occasions, he singled out Ida B. Wells, co-founder of the NAACP and the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”. His provocations and threats eventually forced Ida to leave the South in fear of her own life.

Ida B. Wells is the embodiment of grace and courage, while Carmack is the essence of hatred and racism. Ida is a Pulitzer Prize winner, civil rights pioneer, businesswoman, and an example for all of us to live by. For these reasons, we support the funding and installation of an Ida B. Wells monument in the same place where her assaulters’ statue once stood.

Please sign and share this petition to help preserve the legacy of one of the greatest Tennesseans who ever lived.