Later this summer, the former home of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s statue in the park that once bore his name will be a site celebrating Black freedom and liberation.

The annual Juneteenth Urban Musical Festival is moving from Robert R. Church Park near Fourth and Beale streets to Health Sciences Park. 

Telisa Franklin, president of the festival, announced the decision at a Friday, April 30 press conference where Forrest’s statue once stood. Memphis Greenspace, a private nonprofit that owns the park, collaborated with festival organizers to bring the event to Health Sciences Park.

Damaged historical marker at former slave market rededicated Downtown

Franklin worked with Van Turner, director and president of the Memphis Greenspace, to bring the festival to Health Sciences Park at the intersection of Madison Avenue & South Dunlap Street. The park is the same site where Forrest and his wife, Mary Ann Montgomery, are buried.

This is the first year Juneteenth is recognized as a holiday by Shelby County, Memphis and the state. Franklin views this year’s festival as an important educational tool – particularly for the city’s youth.

“All weekend long we will continue to impact the lives of our children, so that they know Juneteenth means free, and they are free to be whatever they want to be,” Franklin said.

The festival will be held the weekend of Juneteenth – Friday, June 18 and Saturday, June 19. There will be educational opportunities, vendors and live music – headlined by Memphis-born gospel singer Earnest Pugh.

Memphis has celebrated Juneteenth since 1993. Juneteenth marks the end of slavery after Union general Gordon Granger read federal orders in Galveston, Texas, to free enslaved people there.

Those orders came nearly three years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, effective January 1, 1863.

In 2017, Forrest’s statue was removed after the city sold the property now known as Health Sciences Park, and Memphis Park, also known as Fourth Bluff, to Memphis Greenspace. Though the statue of Forrest on his horse that once stood on the pedestal has been removed, the remains of Forrest and his wife are still at Health Sciences Park.

“I think it’s just poetic justice to celebrate something so empowering for African Americans, and quite frankly for all Americans on the actual ground where there once stood a Confederate soldier,” said Turner. “One whose intent was to keep African Americans enslaved. We now will have something that is so beautiful and so majestic. You will really see the true beauty of the African American culture.”

Elaine Lee Turner, director for the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum, spoke at the press conference about a time when Black people were not welcome at the park.

“If they tried to walk to this park, they would be beaten,” she said. “This is a new day in Memphis history, and we must recognize this.”

Turner said Memphis needs this event as part of its “redemption story” regarding the park’s history. 

“We need redemption,” he said. “We need hope. We need a path forward. We need to dig out of poverty. We need to dig out of crime. We need to dig out of some things that are going on in the community.

“This is a good way to do it by celebrating freedom and celebrating new beginnings.”