Because that’s not an error. That’s exactly how it started. As a goofy fraternal order for ex-soldiers. Yes it went bad quickly, but that doesn’t change the fact of its origins.
Who said it was? He was a slave trader. Who’s disputed that?
Criminal? He was never convicted of any war crime, and indeed there was letter evidence that he put himself at risk by riding between his men and the defeated Union troops to try to stop the slaughter at Fort Pillow. I use the phrase “defeated troops” advisedly, because there was conflicting testimony about whether they surrendered. They apparently never surrendered as a unit (the Union flag was still flying at the time of the slaughter), although at least some of them plainly tried to surrender and were killed. But some continued to fire. The troops caught under the bluff by the river had their arms with them. They weren’t “prisoners,” contrary to your earlier post. So here you (and the SPLC) ARE playing fast and loose with facts.
Well again, the false internet meme that got repeated here is that he was the founder of the KKK. (He was not.) Also implicit was the suggestion that Forrest got things named after him in the South because of his involvement with the Klan. (This is a suggestion first propagated by James Loewen, and then picked up as an internet meme.) In fact, his military exploits during the war were legendary, and he was acknowledged by generals of both sides as one of the great military geniuses the war produced. That is why he was idolized in the South. (Note the past tense. Nobody much remembers him these days.)
Forrest was able to exercise little to no effective centralized control over the Klan, and he attempted to disband it when it became violent. As noted by the Congressional committee which subsequently investigated the matter:
And again you just gloss right over Forrest’s role as a proponent of racial reconciliation. Not villainous enough I guess:
That last sounds pretty damned admirable to me. You know, considering how EEEEEvil Forrest was. :rolleyes: