Y'all, in a strange turn of events, I have breaking Nathan Bedford Forrest news: The Pole Bearers Association was not a benevolent society devoted to the uplift of Black Memphis in 1875, when Nathan Bedford Forrest went to speak to their convention. They were later. Not in 1875.

In 1875 (and earlier) the Pole Bearers were 600 armed Black Union vets who were scaring the shit out of all of Memphis.

Nathan Bedford Forrest didn't go make nice with them because he had become some bastion of Black civil rights. They were 600 armed Black Union vets who lived in the same city as a dude who had led the slaughter of Black Union soldiers and then held a leadership position in

a paramilitary terrorist organization that attacked Black people after the war. He went to make nice because he didn't want them to take revenge on him.

I have to go stare off into space for a few minutes. Everything's a lie designed to make white people look good and magnanimous. But dude was just a pragmatist looking to keep his ass out of the line of fire.