October 5, 2017 - Following the August 12 events in Charlottesville, VA, where a white nationalist rally left 34 people injured and one person dead, 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer, urgent calls have been made for the removal of Confederate statues and monuments. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center's 'Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy' report, there are at least 1,503 Confederate symbols in public spaces, including monuments, statues, markers and plaques. Three of those monuments are in Shelby County, two of which include the Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest statues in city parks in downtown Memphis. William Weddendorf, a 72-year-old retiree from Bartlett, strongly feels the monuments should remain standing, especially Nathan Bedford Forrest's, the former slave trader, Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan member. "To have this gorgeous statue taken down as a magnificent art form and moved to the shadows of Elmwood Cemetery, where it would never be seen, to me is a travesty of the work of art we have," Weddendorf said. "This type of art form is very limited and is a unique form of artistic expression. It is beautifully done. So, I believe the statue should stay where it is." (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal)