Taylor Swift asks Tennessee leaders to get rid of monuments of white supremacists: 'Villains don't deserve statues'

• Taylor Swift advocated for Tennessee to eliminate monuments of two racist historical figures in a series of tweets on Friday.
• "As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things," she wrote.
• After Black Lives Matter protesters tore down a statue of Edward Carmack, a newspaper editor who published pro-lynching editorials, Swift requested that it remains gone.
• She also called for officials to take down a monument of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave owner and leader of the Klu Klux Klan.
• "We need to retroactively change the status of people who perpetuated hideous patterns of racism from 'heroes' to 'villains.' And villains don't deserve statues," she wrote.

Taylor Swift advocated for the removal of monuments depicting "racist historical figures" in Tennessee in a series of tweets on Friday.

"As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things," the musician, 30, wrote. "Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such."

Carmack, a newspaper editor and US Senator, was a segregationist who published pro-lynching editorials and incited mobs against civil rights journalist Ida B. Wells. The statue of Carmack, which was erected in front of the Capitol building in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1927, was torn down by Black Lives Matter protesters on May 30.

On Monday, the state of Tennessee said that they would replace the monument due to the law, a decision that Swift called, "a waste of state funds and a waste of an opportunity to do the right thing."

Swift also requested the elimination of a monument of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate Army general and the first Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan, in the State Capitol building, along with the annual holiday celebrating him.

A bill recently passed that freed the governor of his duty to proclaim the holiday each year, although it still exists. And while Tennessee lawmakers voted on a resolution to permanently remove the statue of Forrest, the bill was ultimately ruled down.

"Taking down statues isn't going to fix centuries of systemic oppression, violence and hatred that black people have had to endure but it might bring us one small step closer to making ALL Tennesseans and visitors to our state feel safe - not just the white ones," Swift wrote. "We need to retroactively change the status of people who perpetuated hideous patterns of racism from 'heroes' to 'villains.' And villains don't deserve statues."

The "Bad Blood" singer directly addressed the Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to consider taking down statues of racist figures.

"When you fight to honor racists, you show black Tennesseans and all of their allies where you stand, and you continue this cycle of hurt," she wrote. "You can't change history, but you can change this."

Swift's request comes as some mayors have decided to permanently remove historical statues of Confederate figures after anti-racism protestors defaced or destroyed them. Officials in cities like San Diego, Jacksonville, Louisville, and more have done away with the monuments.