Reconstructing the Lost Cause in the Memphis City Parks Renaming Controversy

This essay examines the rhetorical responses by citizens who opposed efforts to rename (Nathan Bedford) Forrest Park in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2005. Letters to the editor published in the city's primary newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, were examined and revealed a rhetorical reliance on tenets of the Lost Cause myth that ennobled Southern states following the Civil War. The findings reveal that this controversy's true consequence rests in the political control of Memphis's historical narrative. The Lost Cause's signification in these letters reaffirms White antebellum privilege by preserving and fortifying White historical narratives in light of the mid-20th century's Second Reconstruction.