NASHVILLE, TN — The Black Caucus in the Tennessee House of Representatives berated a GOP lawmaker for his stealth passage of a resolution honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader, an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a Confederate general whose troops are blamed for the mass slaughter of surrendering black Union soldiers. Standing with them? The chamber's two top Republicans.

Earlier in this year's session, Rep. Mike Sparks, a Republican from Smyrna, filed a resolution that honored Forrest "to recognize the importance of the rich and vast history of the State of Tennessee." A bust of Forrest is displayed in the State Capitol between the House and Senate chambers just a few feet from a bust of Sampson Keeble, who was the first African-American elected to the Tennessee House, in 1872.

That resolution honoring Forrest was "deferred to summer study," the Tennessee General Assembly's euphemistic term for making a bill disappear without having to vote it down formally.

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Undeterred, Sparks, filed a second resolution, ostensibly honoring Louisiana pastor and Forrest biographer Shane Kastler. The second resolution, though, included language about Forrest that largely mirrored the first. Both resolutions acknowledge Forrest's slave-trading and Klan-leading, though neither mentions his participation in the Fort Pillow Massacre, in which Forrest's men killed more than 300 African-American Union soldiers after they surrendered.

In any case, the second resolution was placed on the April 13 consent calendar, which is reserved for non-controversial matters, and was approved on a 94-0 vote, along with resolutions honoring the Soddy Daisy High School cheerleaders, the Ootlewah High School salutatorian, and others.

But many in the House say Sparks rooked them.

"He pulled a fast one," Rep. Johnny Shaw (D-Bolivar), an African-American, told the Associated Press. "I don't think I owe any recognition to Mr. Forrest at all. If I could take my vote back, I would."

Sparks told the AP it was his colleagues' own fault that they didn't know what was in the resolution.

During Thursday's floor session of the House, Sparks apologized to the Black Caucus saying there was "no offense intended" by the resolution. The caucus, however, was displeased with the answer, castigating Sparks. House Majority Leader Glen Casada (R-Franklin) and Caucus Chairman Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville), along with a number of white Democrats, stood by the Black Caucus's side in apparent solidarity.

"It's sickening, it's conniving, it's underhanded, it's shady," Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis) said. "This is a national embarrassment."

Parkinson went on to read old advertisements for slave sales and relayed a story of Forrest bragging about selling girls to men who raped them. He said Sparks' comments to the AP showed that he was not sorry for the legislative move.

"We should not commemorate those people," Casada told The Tennessean. "I think we all stood up as a body and said to the state of Tennessee: we're sorry, it won't happen again."

Rep. G.A. Hardaway, a Democrat from Memphis, said that House members have a duty not to place controversial items on the consent calendar, particularly resolutions that are not vetted through the committee system.

House Speaker Beth Harwell has already signed the resolution — though it's not known if she read it before doing so — which eliminates the possibility of one of the 94 members of the House who voted for the resolution calling for its reconsideration. Resolutions do not require the governor's signature, nor are they subject to veto.

Image via Library of Congress

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