title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Not all of Forrest's exploits of individual combat involved enemy troops. Lieutenant Andrew Wills Gould, an artillery officer in Forrest's command, was being transferred, presumably because cannons under his command were spiked (disabled) by the enemy during the Battle of Day's Gap. On June 13, 1863, Gould confronted Forrest about his transfer, which escalated into a violent exchange. Gould shot Forrest in the hip and Forrest mortally stabbed Gould. Forrest was thought to have been fatally wounded by Gould but he recovered and was ready to fight in the Chickamauga Campaign.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest served with the main army at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 18–20, 1863, in which he pursued the retreating Union army and took hundreds of prisoners. Like several others under Bragg's command, he urged an immediate follow-up attack to recapture Chattanooga, which had fallen a few weeks before. Bragg failed to do so, upon which Forrest was quoted as saying, "What does he fight battles for?" The story that Forrest confronted and threatened the life of Bragg in the fall of 1863, following the battle of Chickamauga, and that Bragg transferred Forrest to command in Mississippi as a direct result, is now considered to be apocryphal.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: On December 4, 1863, Forrest was promoted to the rank of major general. On March 25, 1864, Forrest's cavalry raided the town of Paducah, Kentucky in the Battle of Paducah, during which Forrest demanded the surrender of U.S. Colonel Stephen G. Hicks: "if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter." Hicks refused to comply with the ultimatum, and according to his subsequent report, Forrest's troops took a position and set up a battery of guns while a flag of truce was still up. As soon as they received the Union reply, they moved forward at the command of a junior officer, and the Union forces opened fire. The Confederates tried to storm the fort, but were repulsed; they rallied and made two more attempts, both of which failed.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Fort Pillow, located upriver from Memphis (near Henning, Tennessee), was originally constructed by Confederate general Gideon Johnson Pillow on the bluffs of the Mississippi River, and taken over by Union forces in 1862 after the Confederates had abandoned the fort. The fort was manned by 557 Union troops, 295 white and 262 black, under Union commander Maj. L.F. Booth.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: On April 12, 1864, Forrest's men, under Brig. Gen. James Chalmers, attacked and recaptured Fort Pillow. Booth and his adjutant were killed in the battle, leaving Fort Pillow under the command of Major William Bradford. Forrest had reached the fort at 10:00 am after a hard ride from Mississippi, and his horse was soon shot out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground. He then mounted a second horse, which was shot out from under him as well, forcing him to mount a third horse. By 3:30 pm, Forrest had concluded that the Union troops could not hold the fort, thus he ordered a flag of truce raised and demanded that the fort be surrendered. Bradford refused to surrender, believing his troops could escape to the Union gunboat, USS "New Era", on the Mississippi River. Forrest's men immediately took over the fort, while Union soldiers retreated to the lower bluffs of the river, but the USS "New Era" did not come to their rescue. What happened next became known as the Fort Pillow Massacre. As the Union troops surrendered, Forrest's men opened fire, slaughtering both black and white soldiers. According to historians John Cimprich and Bruce Tap, although their numbers were roughly equal, two thirds of the black Union soldiers were killed, while only a third of the whites were killed. The atrocities at Fort Pillow continued throughout the night. Conflicting accounts of what actually occurred were given later.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest's Confederate forces were accused of subjecting Union captured soldiers to extreme brutality, with allegations of back-shooting soldiers who fled into the river, shooting wounded soldiers, burning men alive, nailing men to barrels and igniting them, crucifixion, and hacking men to death with sabers. Forrest's men were alleged to have set fire to a Union barracks with wounded Union soldiers inside In defense of their actions, Forrest's men insisted that the Union soldiers, although fleeing, kept their weapons and frequently turned to shoot, forcing the Confederates to keep firing in self-defense. The rebels said the Union flag was still flying over the fort, which indicated that the force had not formally surrendered. A contemporary newspaper account from Jackson, Tennessee stated that "General Forrest begged them to surrender" but "not the first sign of surrender was ever given". Similar accounts were reported in many Southern newspapers at the time. These statements, however, were contradicted by Union survivors, as well as by the letter of a Confederate soldier who graphically recounted a massacre. Achilles Clark, a soldier with the 20th Tennessee cavalry, wrote to his sisters immediately after the battle:


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Following the cessation of hostilities, Forrest transferred the 14 most seriously wounded United States Colored Troops (USCT) to the U.S. steamer "Silver Cloud". The 226 Union troops taken prisoner at Fort Pillow were marched under guard to Holly Springs, Mississippi and then convoyed to Demopolis, Alabama. On April 21, Capt. John Goodwin, of Forrest's cavalry command, forwarded a dispatch listing the prisoners captured. The list included the names of 7 officers and 219 white enlisted soldiers. According to Richard L. Fuchs, "records concerning the fate of the black prisoners are either nonexistent or unreliable". President Abraham Lincoln asked his cabinet for opinions as to how the Union should respond to the massacre.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: At the time of the massacre, General Grant was no longer in Tennessee but had transferred to the east to command all Union troops. He wrote in his memoirs that Forrest in his report of the battle had "left out the part which shocks humanity to read".


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Because of the events at Fort Pillow, the Northern public and press viewed Forrest as a war criminal. The "Chicago Tribune" said Forrest and his brothers were "slave drivers and woman whippers", while Forrest himself was described as "mean, vindictive, cruel, and unscrupulous". The Southern press steadfastly defended Forrest's reputation.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: S.C. Gwynne writes, "Forrest's responsibility for the massacre has been actively debated for a century and a half. ... No direct evidence suggests that he ordered the shooting of surrendering or unarmed men, but to fully exonerate him from responsibility is also impossible".


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest's most decisive victory came on June 10, 1864, when his 3,500-man force clashed with 8,500 men commanded by Union Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis at the Battle of Brices Crossroads in northeastern Mississippi. Here, the mobility of the troops under his command and his superior tactics led to victory, allowing him to continue harassing Union forces in southwestern Tennessee and northern Mississippi throughout the war. Forrest set up a position for an attack to repulse a pursuing force commanded by Sturgis, who had been sent to impede Forrest from destroying Union supply lines and fortifications. When Sturgis's Federal army came upon the crossroads, they collided with Forrest's cavalry. Sturgis ordered his infantry to advance to the front line to counteract the cavalry. The infantry, tired, weary and suffering under the heat, were quickly broken and sent into mass retreat. Forrest sent a full charge after the retreating army and captured 16 artillery pieces, 176 wagons and 1,500 stands of small arms. In all, the maneuver cost Forrest 96 men killed and 396 wounded. The day was worse for Union troops, who suffered 223 killed, 394 wounded and 1,623 missing. The losses were a deep blow to the black regiment under Sturgis's command. In the hasty retreat, they stripped off commemorative badges that read "Remember Fort Pillow" to avoid goading the Confederate force pursuing them.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: One month later, while serving under General Stephen D. Lee, Forrest experienced tactical defeat at the Battle of Tupelo in 1864. Concerned about Union supply lines, Maj. Gen. Sherman sent a force under the command of Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith to deal with Forrest. Union forces drove the Confederates from the field and Forrest was wounded in the foot, but his forces were not wholly destroyed. He continued to oppose Union efforts in the West for the remainder of the war.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest led other raids that summer and fall, including a famous one into Union-held downtown Memphis in August 1864 (the Second Battle of Memphis) and another on a major Union supply depot at Johnsonville, Tennessee. On November 4, 1864, during the Battle of Johnsonville, the Confederates shelled the city, sinking three gunboats and nearly thirty other ships and destroying many tons of supplies. During Hood's Tennessee Campaign, he fought alongside General John Bell Hood, the newest commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, in the Second Battle of Franklin on November 30. Facing a disastrous defeat, Forrest argued bitterly with Hood (his superior officer) demanding permission to cross the Harpeth River and cut off the escape route of Union Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield's army. He eventually made the attempt, but it was too late.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: After his bloody defeat at Franklin, Hood continued on to Nashville. Hood ordered Forrest to conduct an independent raid against the Murfreesboro garrison. After success in achieving the objectives specified by Hood, Forrest engaged Union forces near Murfreesboro on December 5, 1864. In what would be known as the Third Battle of Murfreesboro, a portion of Forrest's command broke and ran. When Hood's battle-hardened Army of Tennessee, consisting of 40,000 men deployed in three infantry corps plus 10,000 to 15,000 cavalry, was all but destroyed on December 15–16, at the Battle of Nashville, Forrest distinguished himself by commanding the Confederate rear guard in a series of actions that allowed what was left of the army to escape. For this, he would later be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general on March 2, 1865. A portion of his command, now dismounted, was surprised and captured in their camp at Verona, Mississippi on December 25, 1864, during a raid of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad by a brigade of Brig. Gen. Benjamin Grierson's cavalry division.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In the spring of 1865, Forrest led an unsuccessful defense of the state of Alabama against Wilson's Raid. His opponent, Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson, defeated Forrest at the Battle of Selma on April 2, 1865. A week later, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant in Virginia. When he received news of Lee's surrender, Forrest surrendered as well. On May 9, 1865, at Gainesville, Forrest read his farewell address to the men under his command, enjoining them to "submit to the powers to be, and to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land."


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: As a former slave trader and slave owner, Forrest experienced the abolition of slavery at war's end as a major financial setback. He had become interested in the area around Crowley's Ridge during the war, and took up civilian life in 1865 in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1866, Forrest and C.C. McCreanor contracted to finish the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad, including a right-of-way that passed over the ridge. The ridgetop commissary he built as a provisioning store for the 1,000 Irish laborers hired to lay the rails became the nucleus of a town, which most residents called "Forrest's Town" and which was incorporated as Forrest City, Arkansas in 1870.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: The historian Court Carney writes that Forrest was not universally popular in the white Memphis community: he alienated many of the city's businessmen in his commercial dealings and he was criticized for questionable business practices that caused him to default on debts.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: He later found employment at the Selma-based Marion & Memphis Railroad and eventually became the company president. He was not as successful in railroad promoting as in war and, under his direction, the company went bankrupt. Nearly ruined as the result of this failure, Forrest spent his final days running an eight-hundred acre farm on land he leased on President's Island in the Mississippi River, where he and his wife lived in a log cabin. There, with the labor of over a hundred prison convicts, he grew corn, potatoes, vegetables and cotton profitably, but his health was in steady decline.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: During the "Virginius" Affair of 1873, some of Forrest's old Southern friends were filibusters aboard the vessel; consequently, he wrote a letter to the then General-in-Chief of the United States Army William T. Sherman and offered his services in case a war were to break out between the United States and Spain. Sherman, who had recognized how formidable an opponent Forrest was in battle during the Civil War, replied after the crisis settled down. He thanked Forrest for the offer and stated that had war broken out, he would have considered it an honor to have served side by side with him.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest was an early member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which was formed by six veterans of the Confederate Army in Pulaski, Tennessee, during the spring of 1866 and soon expanded throughout the state and beyond. Forrest became involved sometime in late 1866 or early 1867. A common report is that Forrest arrived in Nashville in April 1867 while the Klan was meeting at the Maxwell House Hotel, probably at the encouragement of a state Klan leader, former Confederate general George Gordon. The organization had grown to the point that an experienced commander was needed, and Forrest was well-suited to assume the role. In Room 10 of the Maxwell, Forrest was sworn in as a member by John W. Morton. Brian Steel Wills quotes two KKK members who identified Forrest as a Klan leader. James R. Crowe stated, "After the order grew to large numbers we found it necessary to have someone of large experience to command. We chose General Forrest". Another member wrote, "N. B. Forest of Confederate fame was at our head, and was known as the Grand Wizard. I heard him make a speech in one of our Dens". The title "Grand Wizard" was chosen because General Forrest had been known as "The Wizard of the Saddle" during the war. According to Jack Hurst's 1993 biography, "Two years after Appomattox, Forrest was reincarnated as grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. As the Klan's first national leader, he became the Lost Cause's avenging angel, galvanizing a loose collection of boyish secret social clubs into a reactionary instrument of terror still feared today." Forrest was the Klan's first and only Grand Wizard, and he was active in recruitment for the Klan from 1867 to 1868.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Following the war, the United States Congress began passing the Reconstruction Acts to specify conditions for the readmission of former Confederate States to the Union, including ratification of the Fourteenth (1868), and Fifteenth (1870) Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth addressed citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws for former slaves, while the Fifteenth specifically secured the voting rights of black men. According to Wills, in the August 1867 state elections the Klan was relatively restrained in its actions. White Americans who made up the KKK hoped to persuade black voters that a return to their pre-war state of bondage was in their best interest. Forrest assisted in maintaining order. It was after these efforts failed that Klan violence and intimidation escalated and became widespread. Author Andrew Ward, however, writes, "In the spring of 1867, Forrest and his dragoons launched a campaign of midnight parades; 'ghost' masquerades; and 'whipping' and even 'killing Negro voters and white Republicans, to scare blacks off voting and running for office.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In an 1868 interview by a Cincinnati newspaper, Forrest claimed that the Klan had 40,000 members in Tennessee and 550,000 total members throughout the Southern states. He said he sympathized with them, but denied any formal connection, although he claimed he could muster thousands of men himself. He described the Klan as "a protective political military organization ... The members are sworn to recognize the government of the United States ... Its objects originally were protection against Loyal Leagues and the Grand Army of the Republic ...". After only a year as Grand Wizard, in January 1869, faced with an ungovernable membership employing methods that seemed increasingly counterproductive, Forrest dissolved the Klan, ordered their costumes destroyed, and withdrew from participation. His declaration had little effect, and few Klansmen destroyed their robes and hoods.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In 1871, the "U.S Congressional Committee Report" stated that "The natural tendency of all such organizations is to violence and crime, hence it was that Gen. Forrest and other men of influence by the exercise of their moral power, induced them to disband".


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: The Klan's activity infiltrated the Democratic Party's campaign for the presidential election of 1868. Prominent ex-Confederates, including Forrest, the Grand Wizard of the Klan, and South Carolina's Wade Hampton, attended as delegates at the 1868 Democratic Convention, held at Tammany Hall headquarters at 141 East 14th Street in New York City. Forrest rode to the convention on a train that stopped in a small Northern town along the way, where he faced a protester who wanted to fight the "damned butcher" of Fort Pillow. Former Governor of New York Horatio Seymour was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate, while Forrest's friend, Frank Blair, Jr. was nominated as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Seymour's running mate. The Seymour–Blair Democratic ticket's campaign slogan was: "Our Ticket, Our Motto, This Is a White Man's Country; Let White Men Rule". The Democratic Party platform denounced the Reconstruction Acts as unconstitutional, void, and revolutionary. The party advocated termination of the Freedman's Bureau and any government policy designed to aid blacks in the South. These developments worked to the advantage of the Republicans, who focused on the Democratic Party's alleged disloyalty during and after the Civil War.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: During the presidential election of 1868, the Ku Klux Klan under the leadership of Forrest, along with other terrorist groups, used brutal violence and intimidation against blacks and Republican voters. Forrest played a prominent role in the spread of the Klan in the South, meeting with racist whites in Atlanta several times between February and March 1868. Forrest probably organized a statewide Klan network in Georgia during these visits. On March 31 the Klan struck, killing prominent Republican organizer George Ashburn in Columbus.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: The Republicans had nominated one of Forrest's battle adversaries, Union war hero Ulysses S. Grant, for the Presidency at their convention held in October. Klansmen took their orders from their former Confederate officers. In Louisiana, 1,000 blacks were killed to suppress Republican voting. In Georgia, blacks and Republicans also faced a lot of violence. The Klan's violence was primarily designed to intimidate voters, targeting black and white supporters of the Republican Party. The Klan's violent tactics backfired, as Grant, whose slogan was "Let us have peace", won the election and Republicans gained a majority in Congress. Grant defeated Horatio Seymour, the Democratic presidential candidate, by a comfortable electoral margin, 214 to 80. The popular vote was much closer: Grant received 3,013,365 (52.7%) votes, while Seymour received 2,708,744 (47.3%) votes. Grant lost Georgia and Louisiana, where the violence and intimidation against blacks was most prominent.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Many in the north, including President Grant, backed the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, that gave voting rights to Americans regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". Congress and Grant passed the Enforcement Acts from 1870 to 1871, to protect "registration, voting, officeholding, or jury service" of African Americans. Under these laws enforced by Grant and the newly formed Department of Justice, there were over 5,000 indictments and 1,000 convictions of Klan members across the South.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest testified before the Congressional investigation of Klan activities on June 27, 1871. He denied membership, but his individual role in the KKK was beyond the scope of the investigating committee, which wrote: "Our design is not to connect General Forrest with this order (the reader may form his own conclusion upon this question)". The committee also noted, "The natural tendency of all such organizations is to violence and crime; hence it was that General Forrest and other men of influence in the state, by the exercise of their moral power, induced them to disband". George Cantor, a biographer of Confederate generals, wrote, "Forrest ducked and weaved, denying all knowledge, but admitted he knew some of the people involved. He sidestepped some questions and pleaded failure of memory on others. Afterwards, he admitted to 'gentlemanly lies'. He wanted nothing more to do with the Klan, but felt honor bound to protect former associates."


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: After the lynch mob murder of four black people who had been arrested for defending themselves in a brawl at a barbecue, Forrest wrote to Tennessee Governor John C. Brown in August 1874 and "volunteered to help 'exterminate' those men responsible for the continued violence against the blacks", offering "to exterminate the white marauders who disgrace their race by this cowardly murder of Negroes".


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: On July 5, 1875, Forrest gave a speech before the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association, a post-war organization of black Southerners advocating to improve the economic condition of black people and to gain equal rights for all citizens. At this, his last public appearance, he made what "The New York Times" described as a "friendly speech" during which, when offered a bouquet of flowers by a young black woman, he accepted them, thanked her and kissed her on the cheek. Forrest spoke in encouragement of black advancement and of endeavoring to be a proponent for espousing peace and harmony between black and white Americans.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In response to the Pole-Bearers speech, the Cavalry Survivors Association of Augusta, the first Confederate organization formed after the war, called a meeting in which Captain F. Edgeworth Eve gave a speech expressing strong disapproval of Forrest's remarks promoting inter-ethnic harmony, ridiculing his faculties and judgment and berating the woman who gave Forrest flowers as "a mulatto wench". The association voted unanimously to amend its constitution to expressly forbid publicly advocating for or hinting at any association of white women and girls as being in the same classes as "females of the negro race". The "Macon Weekly Telegraph" newspaper also condemned Forrest for his speech, describing the event as "the recent disgusting exhibition of himself at the negro jamboree" and quoting part of a "Charlotte Observer" article, which read "We have infinitely more respect for Longstreet, who fraternizes with negro men on public occasions, with the pay for the treason to his race in his pocket, than with Forrest and [General] Pillow, who equalize with the negro women, with only 'futures' in payment".


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Just a few months before his death, Forrest attended an African-American barbecue in Memphis. Aiming to right his past wrongs, Forrest encouraged African-Americans to "work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly", as well as declaring that "when you are oppressed, I'll come to your relief".


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest reportedly died from acute complications of diabetes at the Memphis home of his brother Jesse on October 29, 1877. His eulogy was delivered by his recent spiritual mentor, former Confederate chaplain George Tucker Stainback, who declared in his eulogy: "Lieutenant-General Nathan Bedford Forrest, though dead, yet speaketh. His acts have photographed themselves upon the hearts of thousands, and will speak there forever."


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest's funeral procession was over two miles long. The crowd of mourners was estimated to include 20,000 people. According to Forrest biographer Jack Hurst, writers present at the public viewing of Forrest's body and at the funeral procession noted many black citizens among them.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. In 1904, the remains of Forrest and his wife Mary were disinterred from Elmwood and moved to a Memphis city park that was originally named Forrest Park in his honor, but has since been renamed Health Sciences Park.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: On July 7, 2015, the Memphis City Council unanimously voted to remove the statue of Forrest from Health Sciences Park, and to return the remains of Forrest and his wife to Elmwood Cemetery. However, on October 13, 2017, the Tennessee Historical Commission invoked the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013 and U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 to overrule the city. Consequently, Memphis sold the park land to Memphis Greenspace, a non-profit entity not subject to the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which immediately removed the monument as explained below.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Many memorials have been erected to Forrest, especially in Tennessee and adjacent Southern states. Forrest County, Mississippi is named after him, as is Forrest City, Arkansas. Obelisks in his memory were placed at his birthplace in Chapel Hill, Tennessee and at Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park near Camden.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest was elevated in Memphis in particular—where he lived and died—to the status of folk hero. Historian Court Carney suggested that "embarrassed by their city's early capitulation during the Civil War, white Memphians desperately needed a hero and therefore crafted a distorted depiction of Forrest's role in the war." A memorial to him, the first Civil War memorial in Memphis, was erected in 1905 in a new Nathan Bedford Forrest Park. A bust sculpted by Jane Baxendale is on display at the Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville. The World War II Army base Camp Forrest in Tullahoma, Tennessee was named after him. It is now the site of the Arnold Engineering Development Center. The Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue in Nashville was particularly notable for its idiosyncratic depiction of Forrest on horseback.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: , Tennessee had 32 dedicated historical markers linked to Nathan Bedford Forrest, more than are dedicated to all three former Presidents associated with the state combined: Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson. The Tennessee legislature established July 13 as "Nathan Bedford Forrest Day". A Tennessee-based organization, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, posthumously awarded Forrest their Confederate Medal of Honor, created in 1977.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: A monument to Forrest in the Confederate Circle section of Old Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama reads "Defender of Selma, Wizard of the Saddle, Untutored Genius, The first with the most. This monument stands as testament of our perpetual devotion and respect for Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest. CSA 1821–1877, one of the South's finest heroes. In honor of Gen. Forrest's unwavering defense of Selma, the great state of Alabama, and the Confederacy, this memorial is dedicated. DEO VINDICE". As an armory for the Confederacy, Selma provided a substantial part of the South's ammunition during the Civil War. The bust of Forrest was stolen from the cemetery monument in March 2012 and replaced in May 2015. A monument to Forrest at a corner of Veterans Plaza in Rome, Georgia was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1909 to honor his bravery for saving Rome from Union Army Colonel Abel Streight and his cavalry.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: High schools named for Forrest were built in Chapel Hill, Tennessee and Jacksonville, Florida. The school in Jacksonville was named for Forrest in 1959 at the urging of the Daughters of the Confederacy because they were upset about the 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education" decision. In 2008, the Duval County School Board voted 5–2 against a push to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville. In 2013, the board voted 7–0 to begin the process to rename the school. At the time the school was all white, but now more than half the student body is black. After several public forums and discussions, Westside High School was unanimously approved in January 2014 as the school's new name.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In August 2000, a road on Fort Bliss named for Forrest decades earlier was renamed for former post commander Richard T. Cassidy. In 2005, Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey started an effort to move the statue over Forrest's grave and rename Forrest Park. Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, who is black, blocked the move. Others have tried to get a bust of Forrest removed from the Tennessee House of Representatives chamber. Leaders in other localities have also tried to remove or eliminate Forrest monuments, with mixed success.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In 1978, Middle Tennessee State University abandoned imagery it had formerly used (in 1951, the school's yearbook, "The Midlander", featured the first appearance of Forrest's likeness as MTSU's official mascot) and MTSU president M. G. Scarlett removed the General's image from the university's official seal. The Blue Raiders' athletic mascot was changed to an ambiguous swash-buckler character called the "Blue Raider", to avoid association with Forrest or the Confederacy. The school unveiled its latest mascot, a winged horse called "Lightning" inspired by the mythological Pegasus, during halftime of a basketball game against rival Tennessee State University on January 17, 1998. The ROTC building at MTSU had been named Forrest Hall to honor him in 1958, but the frieze depicting General Forrest on horseback that had adorned the side of the building was removed amid protests in 2006. A major push to change its name failed on February 16, 2018, when the governor-controlled Tennessee Historical Commission denied Middle Tennessee State University's petition to rename Forrest Hall.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: The Forrest Hill Academy high school in Atlanta, Georgia, which had been named for Forrest, was renamed the Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy in April 2021 after the Atlanta Braves baseball star who had died less than three months prior.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest is considered one of the Civil War's most brilliant tacticians by the historian Spencer C. Tucker. Forrest fought by simple rules; he maintained that "war means fighting and fighting means killing" and the way to win was "to get there first with the most men". Union General William Tecumseh Sherman called him "that devil Forrest" in wartime communications with Ulysses S. Grant and considered him "the most remarkable man our civil war produced on either side".


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest became well known for his early use of maneuver tactics as applied to a mobile horse cavalry deployment. He grasped the doctrines of mobile warfare that would eventually become prevalent in the 20th century. Paramount in his strategy was fast movement, even if it meant pushing his horses at a killing pace, to constantly harass the enemy during raids by disrupting their supply trains and communications with the destruction of railroad tracks and the cutting of telegraph lines, as he wheeled around his opponent's flank. The Civil War scholar Bruce Catton writes:


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest is often erroneously quoted as saying his strategy was to "git thar fustest with the mostest". Now often recast as "Getting there firstest with the mostest", this misquote first appeared in a "New York Tribune" article written to provide colorful comments in reaction to European interest in Civil War generals. The aphorism was addressed and corrected as "Ma'am, I got there first with the most men" by a "New York Times" story in 1918. Though it was a novel and succinct condensation of the military principles of mass and maneuver, Bruce Catton writes of the spurious quote:


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Modern historians generally believe that Forrest's attack on Fort Pillow was a massacre, noting high casualty rates, and the rebels targeting black soldiers. Forrest's claim that the Fort Pillow massacre was an invention of Northern reporters is contradicted by letters written by Confederate soldiers to their own families, which described extreme brutality on the part of Confederate troops. It was the South's publicly stated position that slaves firing on whites would be killed on the spot, along with Southern whites that fought for the Union, whom the Confederacy considered traitors. According to this analysis, Forrest's troops were carrying out Confederate policy. The historical record does not support his repeated denials that he knew a massacre was taking place, or that he even knew a massacre had occurred at all. Consequently, his role at Fort Pillow was a stigmatizing one for him the rest of his life, both professionally and personally, and contributed to his business problems after the war.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Historians have differed in their interpretations of the events at Fort Pillow. Richard L. Fuchs, author of "An Unerring Fire", concluded:


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Grant himself described Forrest as "a brave and intrepid cavalry general" while noting that Forrest sent a dispatch on the Fort Pillow Massacre "in which he left out the part which shocks humanity to read".


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In the 1990 PBS documentary "The Civil War" by Ken Burns, historian Shelby Foote states in Episode 7 that the Civil War produced two "authentic geniuses": Abraham Lincoln and Nathan Bedford Forrest. When he expressed his opinion to one of General Forrest's granddaughters, she replied after a pause, "You know, we never thought much of Mr. Lincoln in my family". Foote also made Forrest a major character in his novel "Shiloh", which used numerous first-person stories to illustrate a detailed timeline and account of the battle.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Tom Hanks' title character in the film "Forrest Gump" remarks in one scene that his mother named him after Nathan Bedford Forrest and "we was related to him in some way". The following scene satirically depicts Hanks, as Forrest in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, donning a hood and being superimposed into Klan footage from "The Birth of a Nation".


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: Forrest's legacy as "one of the most controversial—and popular—icons of the war" still draws heated public debate.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: A 2011 Mississippi license plate proposal to honor him, by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, revived tensions and raised objections from Mississippi chapter of the NAACP president Derrick Johnson, who compared Forrest to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The Mississippi NAACP petitioned Governor Haley Barbour to denounce the plates and prevent their distribution. Barbour refused to denounce the honor. Instead, he noted that the state legislature would not be likely to approve the plate anyway.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In 2000, a monument to Forrest was unveiled in Selma, Alabama. On March 10, 2012, it was vandalized and the bronze bust of the general disappeared. In August, a historical society called Friends of Forrest moved forward with plans for a new, larger monument, which was to be 12 feet high, illuminated by LED lights, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence and protected by 24-hour security cameras. The plans triggered outrage and a group of around 20 protesters attempted to block construction of the new monument by lying in the path of a concrete truck. Local lawyer and radio host Rose Sanders said, "Glorifying Nathan B. Forrest here is like glorifying a Nazi in Germany. For Selma, of all places, to have a big monument to a Klansman is totally unacceptable". An online petition at Change.org asking the City Council to ban the monument collected 313,617 signatures by mid-September of the same year.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In 2013, the Forrest Park in Memphis was renamed the Health Sciences Park, amid substantial controversy. In light of the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, some Tennessee lawmakers advocated removing a bust of Forrest located in the state's Capitol building. Subsequently, then-Mayor A C Wharton urged that the statue of Forrest be removed from the Health Sciences Park and suggested that the remains of Forrest and his wife be relocated to their original burial site in nearby Elmwood Cemetery. In a nearly unanimous vote on July 7, the Memphis City Council passed a resolution in favor of removing the statue and securing the couple's remains for transfer. The Tennessee Historical Commission denied removal on October 21, 2016, under the authority granted it by the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013, which prevents cities and counties from relocating, removing, renaming, or otherwise disturbing without permission war memorials on public property. The City Council then voted on December 20, 2017, to sell Health Sciences Park to Memphis Greenspace, a new non-profit corporation not subject to the Heritage Protection Act, which removed the statue and another of Jefferson Davis that same evening. The Sons of Confederate Veterans threatened a lawsuit against the city.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: On April 18, 2018, the Tennessee House of Representatives punished Memphis by cutting $250,000 in appropriations for the city's bicentennial celebration. Brett Joseph Forrest, a direct descendant of Nathan, spoke in support of the bust's removal.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: As of 2019, Nathan Bedford Forrest Day was still observed in Tennessee, though some Democrats in the state had attempted to change the law which required Tennessee's governor to sign a proclamation honoring the holiday. However, since that time, Governor Bill Lee's administration introduced a bill – passed by the Tennessee legislature on June 10, 2020 – which released the governor from the former requirement that he issue a proclamation of that observance each year, and a spokesman for Governor Lee confirmed that he would not be signing a Forrest Day proclamation in July 2020.


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: In June 2020, after Black members of the Tennessee House of Representatives unsuccessfully asked it to eliminate a state celebration of Forrest, Representative Cameron Sexton opined: "I don’t think anybody here is truly racist. I think people may make insensitive comments." In 2021 Sexton voted against the removal of the bust of Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol and into the Tennessee State Museum, but only one politician agreed with him and the bust was removed. Sexton said that he believed the removal of the bust "aligns ... with the teaching of communism."


title: Nathan Bedford Forrest

text: On June 3, 2021, the remains of Forrest and his wife were exhumed from their burial place in the park, where they had been for over a century, in order to be reburied in Columbia, Tennessee. The exhumation and reburial was the result of a campaign which began after the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The effort was spearheaded by Take 'Em Down 901, an organization dedicated to removing Confederate iconography, which was founded by activist Tami Sawyer. After the Forrests' remains were removed from Memphis, they were reportedly buried in Munford, Tennessee until their reburial in Columbia in September 2021 by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.


title: Workin' Moms

text: Workin' Moms is a Canadian television sitcom that premiered on CBC Television on January 10, 2017. The show stars Catherine Reitman, Jessalyn Wanlim, Dani Kind, Enuka Okuma, and Juno Rinaldi as a group of friends dealing with the challenges of being working mothers. The series is produced by Wolf + Rabbit Entertainment, the production company of Reitman and her husband, Philip Sternberg.


title: Workin' Moms

text: In February 2019, in the middle of season 3, the series premiered globally on Netflix. On May 29, 2019, "Workin' Moms" was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on February 18, 2020. In April 2020, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on February 16, 2021. In June 2021, the series was renewed for a sixth season., which premiered on January 4, 2022. On June 20, 2022, creator Catherine Reitman announced that pre-production had begun on a seventh and final season, set to premiere in 2023.


title: Workin' Moms

text: In 2019, the show received 9 Canadian Screen Award nominations including "Best Comedy Serie"s and "Best Actress" for both show creator Catherine Reitman and Dani Kind. Reitman also received a nomination for "Best Direction" (for the episode “2005”), while Jann Arden, Amanda Brugel, and Peter Keleghan received recognition for "Best Supporting" or "Guest Actor/Actress".


title: Workin' Moms

text: For the Canadian Screen Awards 2021, the show received a nomination for "Best Comedy Series". Sarah McVie and Juno Rinaldi were both nominated for "Best Supporting Actress, Comedy". Ryan Belleville and Peter Keleghan received "Best Supporting Actor, Comedy" nominations - while Colin Mochrie received a nomination for "Best Guest Performance, Comedy". Catherine Reitman received a "Best Direction, Comedy" nomination, Kristin Fieldhouse a "Best Photography, Comedy" nomination and Marianna Khoury a "Best Picture Editing, Comedy" nomination. Both Dani Kind and Reitman were once again nominated for "Best Lead Actress, Comedy".


title: Workin' Moms

text: John Doyle of "The Globe and Mail," wrote that the show "reeks of entitlement and privilege." Doyle further expressed sympathy for working mothers but not the show saying "The moms represent only a very specific, urban-bourgeois type. Their troubles are tiny, they live in luxury and their only contact with anything approaching the reality of contemporary life is via their nannies."


title: Workin' Moms

text: While Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press wrote that the show "demonstrates a deft ability to deliver punchlines while at the same time confronting the realities of 21st-century motherhood."


title: Workin' Moms

text: Regarding the show's fifth season, Cristina Iskander of Tell-Tale TV noted that "as a whole, "Workin’ Moms" Season 5 is a solid addition to the series... it maintains the general irreverence it’s become known for over the years while allowing for a more serious and somber tone than it’s traditionally had before."


title: John Deere

text: Deere & Company, doing business as John Deere (), is an American corporation that manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains (axles, transmissions, gearboxes) used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment. The company also provides financial services and other related activities.


title: John Deere

text: Deere & Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DE. The company's slogan is "Nothing Runs Like a Deere", and its logo is a leaping deer, with the words 'JOHN DEERE' under it. Various logos incorporating a leaping deer have been used by the company for over 155 years. Deere & Company is headquartered in Moline, Illinois.


title: John Deere

text: Deere & Company ranked in the 2022 "Fortune" 500 list of the largest United States corporations. Their different tractor series include D series, E series, Speciality Tractors, Super Heavy Duty Tractors, and JDLink.


title: John Deere

text: Deere & Company began when John Deere, born in Rutland, Vermont, United States on February 7, 1804, moved to Grand Detour, Illinois in 1836 to escape bankruptcy in Vermont. Already an established blacksmith, Deere opened a shop in Grand Detour in 1837, which allowed him to serve as a general repairman in the village, as well as a manufacturer of tools such as pitchforks and shovels.


title: John Deere

text: Tools were just a start; the item that set him apart was the self-scouring steel plow, which was pioneered in 1837 when John Deere fashioned a Scottish steel saw blade into a plow. Prior to Deere's steel plow, most farmers used iron or wooden plows to which the rich Midwestern soil stuck, so they had to be cleaned frequently. The smooth-sided steel plow solved this problem and greatly aided migration into the American Great Plains in the 19th and early 20th centuries.


title: John Deere

text: The traditional way of doing business was to make the product as and when it was ordered. This style was very slow. As Deere realized that this was not going to be a viable business model, he increased the rate of production by manufacturing plows before putting them up for sale; this allowed customers to not only see what they were buying beforehand but also allowed his customers to purchase his products straight away. Word of his products began to spread quickly.


title: John Deere

text: In 1842, Deere entered a business partnership with Leonard Andrus and purchased land for the construction of a new, two-story factory along the Rock River in Illinois. This factory, named the "L. Andrus Plough Manufacturer", produced about 100 plows in 1842 and around 400 plows during the next year. Deere's partnership with Andrus ended in 1848, and Deere relocated to Moline, Illinois, to have access to the railroad and the Mississippi River. There, Deere formed a partnership with Robert Tate and John Gould and built a factory the same year. Production rose quickly, and by 1849, the Deere, Tate & Gould Company was producing over 200 plows a month. A two-story addition to the plant was built, allowing further production.


title: John Deere

text: Deere bought out Tate and Gould's interests in the company in 1853 and was joined in the business by his son Charles Deere. At that time, the company was manufacturing a variety of farm equipment products in addition to plows, including wagons, corn planters, and cultivators. In 1857, the company's production totals reached almost 1,120 implements per month. In 1858, a nationwide financial recession took a toll on the company. To prevent bankruptcy, the company was reorganized and Deere sold his interests in the business to his son-in-law, Christopher Webber, and his son, Charles Deere, who would take on most of his father's managerial roles. John Deere served as president of the company until his retirement in April 1886 but died one month later in May 1886. The company was reorganized again in 1868 when it was incorporated as Deere & Company. While the company's original stockholders were Charles Deere, Stephen Velie, George Vinton, and John Deere, Charles effectively ran the company. In 1869, Charles began to introduce marketing centers and independent retail dealers to advance the company's sales nationwide. This same year, Deere & Company won "Best and Greatest Display of Plows in Variety" at the 17th Annual Illinois State Fair, for which it won $10 and a silver medal.


title: John Deere

text: The core focus remained on the agricultural implements, but John Deere also made a few bicycles in the 1890s.


title: John Deere

text: Increased competition during the early 1900s from the new International Harvester Company led the company to expand its offerings in the implement business, but the production of gasoline tractors came to define Deere & Company's operations during the 20th century.


title: John Deere

text: In 1912, Deere & Company president William Butterworth (Charles' son-in-law), who had replaced Charles Deere after his death in 1907, began the company's expansion into the tractor business. Deere & Company briefly experimented with its own tractor models, the most successful of which was the Dain All-Wheel-Drive, but in the end decided to continue its foray into the tractor business by purchasing the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in 1918, which manufactured the popular Waterloo Boy tractor at its facilities in Waterloo, Iowa. Deere & Company continued to sell tractors under the Waterloo Boy name until 1923 when the John Deere Model D was introduced. The company continues to manufacture a large percentage of its tractors in Waterloo, Iowa, namely the 7R, 8R, and 9R series.


title: John Deere

text: The company produced its first combine harvester, the John Deere No. 2, in 1927. A year later, this innovation was followed up by the introduction of John Deere No. 1, a smaller machine that was more popular with customers. By 1929, the No. 1 and No. 2 were replaced by newer, lighter-weight harvesters. In the 1930s, John Deere and other farm equipment manufacturers began developing hillside harvesting technology. Harvesters now had the ability to effectively use their combines to harvest grain on hillsides with up to a 50% slope gradient.


title: John Deere

text: On an episode of the Travel Channel series "Made in America" that profiled Deere & Company, host John Ratzenberger stated that the company never repossessed any equipment from American farmers during the Great Depression.


title: John Deere

text: During World War II, the great-grandson of John Deere, Charles Deere Wiman, was president of the company, but he accepted a commission as a colonel in the U.S. Army. Burton F. Peek was hired as president during this period. Before Wiman returned to work at the company in late 1944, he directed the farm machinery and equipment division of the War Production Board. In addition to farm machinery, John Deere manufactured military tractors, and transmissions for the M3 tank. They also made aircraft parts, ammunition, and mobile laundry units to support the war effort.


title: John Deere

text: In 1947, John Deere introduced its first self-propelled combine, model 55. It was soon followed by the smaller models 40 and 45, the larger model 95, and an even larger model 105 was introduced in the 1960s. In the mid-1950s, Deere introduced attachable corn heads, allowing crop producers to cut, shell, and clean corn in one smooth operation.


title: John Deere

text: In 1956, Deere & Company bought-out the German tractor manufacturer, Heinrich Lanz AG (see Lanz Bulldog).


title: John Deere

text: In the last months of 1958, John Deere constructed a factory in northern Rosario, Argentina. In Argentina, the make was managed by Agar Cross & Co.


title: John Deere

text: John Deere made the following models of tractors in Argentina: 445, 730; the models of the series 20 like 1420, 2420, 3420, 4420; the models of the serie 30 like 2330, 2530, 2730, 3330, 3530, 4530; the models of the serie 40 like 2140, 3140 / 3140 DT, 3440, 3540 and the last made in Baigorria of the serie 50 like 2850, 3350, 3550 until 1994.


title: John Deere

text: Seventeen years later, (in 2011) the Argentinian plant returns the assembly of tractors with the following models: 5036C, 5045D (45 HP) Serie 5D, 5045E (45 HP) Serie 5E, 5065E (65 HP) Serie 5E, 5075E (75 HP) Serie 5E, 5425N (77 HP) Serie 5000, 5725 (92 HP) Serie 5025, 5725HC (92 HP) Serie 5025, 5090E, 5090EH, 5076EF, 6110J, 6130J, 6145J and 6165J.


title: John Deere

text: Plus, in 2012, added in SKD/CKD format, the assembly of combine harvesters 9570 STS Serie 70, 9470 STS, 9670 STS and 9770 STS.


title: John Deere

text: Also with the green line, the Argentinian facility made some backhoe loaders and motor graders like 570 A/B, 544 A/B, 507, 308, 200 and the 627, 727 model tractors.


title: John Deere

text: On August 30, 1960, John Deere dealers from around the world converged on Dallas, Texas, for an unprecedented product showcase. Deere Day in Dallas, as the event was called, introduced the world to the "New Generation of Power", the company's first modern four-cylinder and six-cylinder tractors, during a day packed with high-tech presentations, live demonstrations, and a parking lot full of brand-new green and yellow machines. The line of tractors introduced that day was five years in the making, and the event itself took months to plan. Deere chose Dallas to host the event partly because it was home to facilities large enough to accommodate the 6,000 guests and the equipment they were all there to see. The Dallas Memorial Auditorium, the Texas State Fairgrounds Coliseum, the Cotton Bowl, and the Cotton Bowl parking lot were each the site of part of the event. During the event, a new John Deere tractor with a diamond-covered nameplate was displayed for all to see inside Neiman-Marcus, a popular Dallas-based department store.


title: John Deere

text: According to information released by the company at the time of the event, John Deere dealers and key employees came to Dallas via the "largest commercial airlift of its type ever attempted". During the 24 hours leading up to the event, 16 airlines brought Deere employees and salespeople from all over the United States and Canada to Love Field in Dallas. Bill Hewitt, then chairman and CEO of Deere & Company, welcomed the dealers and introduced the new tractors. Hewitt told the guests they were about to see "a line of entirely new tractors – completely modern in every respect – with outstanding features not duplicated in any other make of tractor".


title: John Deere

text: Since entering the tractor business in 1918, John Deere had focused on two-cylinder machines. The New Generation of Power introduced at Deere Day in Dallas was very different from anything Deere had built before. The new line of four- and six-cylinder tractors, the models 1010, 2010, 3010, and 4010, were more far more powerful than Deere's two-cylinder models, and also easier and more comfortable to operate, with conveniently located controls, better visibility, and improved seat suspension. These new tractors were also easier to service.


title: John Deere

text: The 4010 was rated at 80 horsepower in 1960, but tested at 84 horsepower during testing trials, making it one of the most powerful two-wheel-drive farm tractors at that time. The 4010 was the predecessor to the 4020, which is widely regarded as the most popular tractor ever produced by John Deere, and perhaps any tractor manufacturer in the United States. Although the 4020, which was available with Deere's optional Power Shift, enjoyed greater popularity, the 4010 moved John Deere into the modern era of farm tractor technology and design following its successful history as a tractor manufacturer that was by the late 1950s experiencing waning market share due to its outdated technology.


title: John Deere

text: In addition to the advanced engine technology, the "10" series tractors offered many other upgrades from the older two-cylinder models they replaced, including significantly higher horsepower-to-weight ratio, advanced hydraulics, more convenient and comfortable operator stations, and many other improvements. Of the "10" series John Deere tractors introduced in 1960, the 4010 was by far the most popular, with more than 58,000 units sold from 1960 to 1963. The success of the "10" series John Deere tractors, led by the 4010, helped propel John Deere from a 23% market share in 1959 to 34% by 1964 when the 4020 was introduced, making it the top manufacturer of farm equipment in the United States.


title: John Deere

text: In 1973, Deere introduced its new 'Sound Idea' tractors, the 4030, 4230, 4430, and 4630. While these tractors were mechanically similar to the New Generation tractors they replaced, and the 4230, 4430, and 4630 used a 404-cubic-inch displacement engine like the 4020, they featured redesigned sheet metal and most importantly they were available with an optional completely integrated operator's cab that John Deere called the Sound Gard body. This insulated cab that included a roll-over protective structure had a distinctive rounded windshield and came equipped with heat and air conditioning, as well as speakers for an optional radio. An 8-track tape player was also available as an option. The 5020 was replaced by the very similar 6030 and continued in production with New Generation styling until 1977 when the 30 Series tractors were replaced by Deere's 'Iron Horses' series that included the 90-hp 4040, 110-hp 4240, 130-hp 4440, 150-HP 4640, and 180-hp 4840. The 4240, 4440, 4640, and 4840 featured a new 466-cubic-inch displacement engine, and improvements to the cab including an optional hydraulic seat for a smoother ride. The Sound Gard body and Power Shift transmission were standard equipment on the 4840.


title: John Deere

text: In 1983, Deere introduced the 4050, 4250, 4450, 4650, and 4850. These tractors were essentially the same machines as the Iron Horses they replaced, but with significant upgrades. They offered a new 15-speed PowerShift transmission and were available with an optional mechanical front-wheel drive featuring caster action for better traction and a tighter turning radius. They also featured cosmetic upgrades, including a new light brown cab interior, instead of the black interior on previous models. These tractors were followed by the mechanically similar 55 and 60 series tractors before they were replaced by Deere's completely redesigned 7000 and 8000 series tractors in the early 1990s.


title: John Deere

text: In the 1962 Illinois Manufacturers Directory (50th-anniversary edition), John Deere, listed as Deere and Company, claimed a total workforce of 35,000, of which 9,000 were in Illinois. The corporate headquarters were located at 1325 Third Ave. in Moline, Illinois, with six manufacturing plants located around that city and a seventh plant in Hoopeston, Illinois. The six plants in Moline were listed as:


title: John Deere

text: The John Deere Vermilion Works was located at North Sixth Ave., Hoopeston, Illinois, where 140 employees were listed as making iron work and implement parts. Moline, with 42,705 residents in 1962, had the local 7,000 employees of John Deere represent 16% of the city's entire population.


title: John Deere

text: In 1969, John Deere followed its New Generation tractors of the 1960s with a New Generation of combines. These included the 3300, 4400, 6600, and 7700. These models were also the first to come with Quik-Tatch header mounting capabilities as standard equipment. In the 1980s, these combines were followed by the 4420, 6620, 7720, and 8820 that were essentially updated and improved versions of the previous models with larger capacity, a better cab, and easier maintenance and service. The 4420 was discontinued in 1984 and replaced by the 4425 combines imported from Germany, and the 6620, 7720, and 8820 received the Titan II updates.


title: John Deere

text: In 1989, Deere replaced the 6620, 7720, and 8820 with a new line of completely redesigned 'Maximizer' combines that included the 9400, 9500, and 9600 walker combines. These combines featured a center-mounted cab, rear-mounted engine, and more comforts in the cab. Also in 1989, Deere was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 1997, Deere celebrated 50 years of self-propelled combine production, and the 1997 models featured a 50th-anniversary decal. In 1998, the 9410, 9510, and 9610 were introduced. These were essentially the same machines, but with minor upgrades. Deere dealers offered '10 series' upgrades to owners of older 9000 series Maximizer combines. In 1999, Deere introduced the 50 series Maximizer combines. These machines featured significant cosmetic upgrades including a more streamlined appearance, improved ergonomics in the cab, PTO shaft-style header hook-up, and the larger models were available as rotary machines which were a complete departure from the combines that Deere had built in the past.


title: John Deere

text: In the late 1970s, International Harvester had pioneered rotary combines with their Axial flow machines and were soon followed by other manufacturers, but Deere continued to build only conventional walker combines through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1999, John Deere introduced the Single-Tine Separation (STS) system on its 9550, 9650, and 9750 combines, representing a step forward in rotary combine technology. The STS system uses less horsepower and improves material handling.


title: John Deere

text: , Deere & Company employed about 67,000 people worldwide, of which half are in the United States and Canada, and is the largest agriculture machinery company in the world. In August 2014, the company announced it was indefinitely laying off 600 of its workers at plants in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas due to less demand for its products. Inside the United States, the company's primary locations are its administrative center in Moline, Illinois, and manufacturing factories in central and southeastern United States. , the company experiments with an electric farm tractor.


title: John Deere

text: The logo of the leaping deer has been used by this company for over 155 years. Over the years, the logo has had minor changes and pieces removed. Some of the older style logos have the deer leaping over a log. The company uses different logo colors for agricultural vs. construction products. The company's agricultural products are identifiable by a distinctive shade of green paint, with the inside border being yellow. While the construction products are identifiable by a shade of black with the deer being yellow, and the inside border also being yellow.


title: John Deere

text: In September 2017, Deere & Company signed a definitive agreement to acquire Blue River Technology, which is based in Sunnyvale, California, and is a leader in applying machine learning to agriculture. Blue River has designed and integrated computer vision and machine learning technology that will enable growers to reduce the use of herbicides by spraying only where weeds are present, optimizing the use of inputs in farming.


title: John Deere

text: On August 29, 2019, it was announced that Samuel R. Allen will step down as CEO and president of John Deere. John May, president of the Worldwide Agriculture and Turf and Integrated Solutions divisions will replace him in November 2019.


title: John Deere

text: In October 2021, about 10,000 employees, unionized with the United Auto Workers, went on strike following an impasse in contract negotiations.


title: John Deere

text: In January 2022, the company introduced a self-driving tractor at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, designed for large-scale farming as opposed to existing comparable tractors designed for small-scale agriculture. It was part of a larger effort to develop so-called smart machines to make farming faster and more efficient than it would be relying on human labor, including through software, which would mean higher margins. The company said it wanted to "connect 1.5 million machines in service and a half billion acres in use to its cloud-based John Deere Operations Center."


title: John Deere

text: John Deere's license covering the internal software on tractor control computers does not allow users or independent mechanics to modify the software. This prevents repairs by farmers and creates a monopoly for John Deere dealerships. John Deere claims user repair is forbidden by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, through bypassing of digital rights management. Groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation have criticised this activity, being contrary to the right to repair. Some farmers use Ukrainian versions of John Deere software to circumvent restrictions on repair. In February 2022, the US Senate introduced a bill to allow farmers to perform their own repairs. , 26 states have filed legislation for right-to-repair.


title: John Deere

text: Agricultural products include, among others, tractors, combine harvesters, cotton harvesters, balers, planters/seeders, silage machines, and sprayers.


title: John Deere

text: John Deere manufactures a range of forestry machinery, among others, harvesters, forwarders, skidders. feller bunchers and log loaders. Timberjack was a subsidiary of John Deere from 2000 to 2006.


title: John Deere

text: Other products the company manufactures include consumer and commercial equipment such as lawn mowers, compact utility tractors, snow throwers, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and StarFire (a wide-area differential GPS). It is also a supplier of diesel engines and powertrains (axles, transmissions, etc.) used especially in heavy equipment.


title: John Deere

text: John Deere leasing has expanded to non-equipment loans. As of 2017, this is the leading division of John Deere. With a loan portfolio of $2 billion, it accounts for a third of John Deere's income.


title: John Deere

text: John Deere farm equipment has been criticised for being impossible to be serviced or repaired by owners or third parties; only John Deere has access to computer code required for this and to accept non-John-Deere replacement parts. Remote locking by the manufacturer may also be possible. This effectively makes the equipment unusable without the continued involvement of John Deere. It was reported that during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Russian troops stole Ukrainian farm equipment, but that the dealers who owned the equipment locked it remotely.


title: John Deere

text: John Deere reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 30 September 2020 at 766 Kt (-155 /-16.8% y-o-y) and plans to reduce emissions 15% by 2022 from a 2017 base year.


title: John Deere

text: "Green Magazine" is a publication devoted to John Deere enthusiasts. It was begun in November 1984 by Richard and Carol Hain of Bee, Nebraska.


title: John Deere

text: The first issue was mailed in early November 1984 to 135 paid subscribers and had 10 black-and-white pages with features on tractors, letters from readers, and advertisements. At the time, the magazine was published bimonthly. It was written in Lincoln, Nebraska, and it was mailed from the Bee post office.


title: John Deere

text: The magazine grew rapidly, and in 1990, bowing to public demand, it became a monthly. Circulation continued to increase, and currently hovers around 30,000. The magazine now generally contains 88 full-color pages and is perfect bound. It is now printed in Michigan and mailed from several post offices throughout the country.


title: John Deere

text: Current content usually includes a "Tip of the Month" article covering New Generation restoration written by Dan Brotzman, a "Youngtimer" article written by Tyler Buchheit, "Shop Talk" by Ron and JoAnn O'Neill, "Saw It On eBay" by Adam Smith and Benjamin Hain, "Scale Models" by Bill Proft, "What's New and Old" by Greg Stephen, "Feature Model" by Benjamin Hain, "Do You Have One of These" by Richard Hain, and "Mr. Thinker", which is said to be written by "a variety of experts".


title: Annette Funicello

text: Annette Joanne Funicello (October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013) was an American actress and singer. Funicello began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She was one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original "Mickey Mouse Club". In her teenage years, she recorded under the name Annette, and had a successful career as a pop singer. Her most notable singles are "O Dio Mio", "First Name Initial", "Tall Paul", and "Pineapple Princess". During the mid-1960s, she established herself as a film actress, popularizing the successful "Beach Party" genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In 1992, Funicello announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1987. She died of complications from the disease on April 8, 2013.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Annette Joanne Funicello was born in Utica, New York, to Italian Americans Virginia Jeanne (née Albano) and Joseph Edward Funicello. Her family moved to Southern California when she was four years old.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Funicello took dancing and music lessons when she was a child in order to overcome her shyness. In 1955, the 12-year-old was discovered by Walt Disney when she performed as the Swan Queen in "Swan Lake" at a dance recital at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank, California. Disney cast her as one of the original Mouseketeers. She was the last to be selected, and one of the few cast members to be personally selected by Walt Disney himself.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In 1955, she signed a seven-year contract with Disney at $160 a week to rise to $500 a week if all options were exercised.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Funicello proved to be very popular, and by the end of the first season of "The Mickey Mouse Club", she was receiving 6,000 letters a month, according to her Disney Legends biography – more than any other Mouseketeer.


title: Annette Funicello

text: She had a crush on fellow Mouseketeer Lonnie Burr. In 1958, at the finale of the show, she had to say goodbye to each of the members of its cast, and, in her own words, "I never cried so hard in my life".


title: Annette Funicello

text: In addition to appearing in many Mouseketeer sketches and dance routines, Funicello starred in several serials on "The Mickey Mouse Club". These included "Adventure in Dairyland", the second and third "Spin and Marty" serials – "The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty" (1956) and "The New Adventures of Spin and Marty" (1957) – and "" (1958) (which co-starred Richard Deacon).


title: Annette Funicello

text: In several scenes in the "Annette" serial, she performed the song that launched her singing career. The studio received so much mail about "How Will I Know My Love" (lyrics by Tom Adair, music by Frances Jeffords and William Walsh), that Walt Disney issued it as a single, and gave Funicello (somewhat unwillingly) a recording contract.


title: Annette Funicello

text: A proposed live-action feature "Rainbow Road to Oz" was to have starred some of the Mouseketeers, including Darlene Gillespie as Dorothy and Funicello as Ozma. Preview segments from the film aired on September 11, 1957, on "Disneyland"s fourth anniversary show. By then, MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" had been shown on CBS Television for the first time. Theories on why the film was abandoned include Disney's failure to develop a satisfactory script, and the positive reception of the MGM film's television screening. Disney ultimately replaced this film project with a new adaptation of "Babes in Toyland" (1961), which starred Funicello as Mary Contrary.


title: Annette Funicello

text: After the "Mickey Mouse Club", Funicello remained under contract with Disney for a time. She had a role on the Disney television series "Zorro", playing Anita Cabrillo in a three-episode storyline about a teen-aged girl arriving in Los Angeles to visit a father who does not seem to exist. This role was reportedly a 16th birthday present from Walt Disney, and it was the first of two different characters she played opposite Guy Williams as Zorro. She had a multiple-episode guest arc on "Make Room for Daddy" as an Italian exchange student.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Funicello made her feature film debut in the Disney-produced comedy "The Shaggy Dog" (1959) with Fred MacMurray and Tommy Kirk. The film was a success at the box-office.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Although uncomfortable being thought of as a singer, Funicello had a number of pop record hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, mostly written by the Sherman Brothers and including: "Tall Paul", "First Name Initial", "O Dio Mio", "Train of Love" (written by Paul Anka) and "Pineapple Princess". They were released by Disney's Buena Vista label. She also recorded "It's Really Love" in 1959, a reworking of an earlier Paul Anka song called "Toot Sweet" (which was later reworked again into "Johnny's Theme" for "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". Paul Anka was said to have a crush on her; though she was only a year younger, Walt Disney "protected" the underage actress from Anka's advances. Anka's song "Puppy Love", is said to have been inspired by his hopelessly unlikely romantic crush on Funicello.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In an episode of the Disney anthology television series titled "Disneyland After Dark", Funicello can be seen singing live at Disneyland. Walt Disney was reportedly a fan of 1950s pop star Teresa Brewer and tried to pattern Funicello's singing on the same style. However, Funicello credits "the Annette sound" to her record producer, Tutti Camarata, who worked for Disney in that era. Camarata had her double-track her vocals, matching her first track as closely as possible on the second recording to achieve a fuller sound than her voice would otherwise produce. Early in her career, she appeared on the NBC interview program "Here's Hollywood".


title: Annette Funicello

text: In December 1959, Funicello attempted to have her contract with Disney set aside, claiming that it was unequitable and that she was without an agent or legal counsel when she signed it. She was receiving $325 a week (About $3,000 in 2020 dollars). The court refused.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In 1961, Funicello returned to "Zorro" playing a different role. She starred in a big budget musical for Disney, "Babes in Toyland" (1961), alongside Tommy Sands and Kirk.


title: Annette Funicello

text: She also appeared in two television movies filmed in Europe for Disney alongside Kirk, both of which were released theatrically in some markets: "The Horsemasters" (1961), shot in England, and "Escapade in Florence" (1962), filmed in Italy.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Funicello moved on from Disney to become a teen idol, starring in a series of "Beach Party" movies with Frankie Avalon for American International Pictures. These started with "Beach Party" (1963), which was so successful American International Pictures signed Funicello to a seven-year contract and starred her in a series of beach party movies.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Funicello guest-starred on episodes of "Wagon Train", "Burke's Law" and "The Greatest Show on Earth", then starred in another two-part Disney telemovie with Kirk, "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" (1964). This was released to cinemas in the US and became a surprise box office hit.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Also popular were the follow ups to "Beach Party", "Muscle Beach Party" (1964) and "Bikini Beach" (1964).


title: Annette Funicello

text: When she was cast in her first beach movie, Walt Disney requested that she only wear modest bathing suits and keep her navel covered. However, she wore a pink two-piece in "Beach Party", a white two-piece fishnet suit in the second film ("Muscle Beach Party") and a blue and white bikini in the third ("Bikini Beach"). All three swimsuits bared her navel, particularly in "Bikini Beach", where it is visible extensively during close up shots in a sequence early in the film when she meets Frankie Avalon's "Potato Bug" character outside his tent.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Funicello made "Pajama Party" (1964) for AIP with Kirk, not Avalon, though it was an unofficial Beach Party movie and Avalon made a cameo. Avalon was back as Funicello's co-star in "Beach Blanket Bingo" (1965), then she and Kirk did a sequel to "Merlin Jones", "The Monkey's Uncle" (1965). "The Monkey's Uncle" featured Annette singing with The Beach Boys and was another huge hit.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Funicello made a cameo in two AIP comedies starring Avalon, "Ski Party" (1965) and "Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine" (1965), then she did "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" (1965) with Dwayne Hickman. Box office receipts for the series were in decline, and neither Avalon nor Funicello appeared in the final installment, "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" (1966).


title: Annette Funicello

text: AIP tried a new formula with stock car racing films, starting with "Fireball 500" (1966) which starred Funicello, Avalon and Fabian Forte. The movie was popular enough for them to try another stock car movie, "Thunder Alley" (1967) with Funicello and Fabian. It would be her last lead in a feature film for two decades.


title: Annette Funicello

text: During the 1970s, Funicello focused on raising her family. However she still occasionally acted, making guest appearances on shows like "Love, American Style", "Easy Does It... Starring Frankie Avalon", "Fantasy Island" and "The Love Boat".


title: Annette Funicello

text: In 1979, Funicello began starring in a series of television commercials for Skippy peanut butter. Her role as Skippy spokeswoman forced Funicello to turn down a role in "Grease 2". In November 1985, she starred in the 16th episode of the Disney Channel documentary series "Disney Family Album" in an episode about her career.


title: Annette Funicello

text: She starred in a TV movie for Disney, "Lots of Luck" (1985), then was reunited with Avalon in "Back to the Beach" (1987). The two performed together live.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Her autobiography, dictated to Patricia Romanowski and published in 1994, was "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: My Story". The title was taken from a song from the Disney movie "Cinderella".


title: Annette Funicello

text: A television film based on the book, "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story", was made in 1995. In the final scene, the actress portraying Funicello (Eva LaRue), using a wheelchair, turns away from the camera — turning back, it is Funicello herself, who delivered a message to a group of children.


title: Annette Funicello

text: During this period, she produced a line of teddy bears for the Annette Funicello Collectible Bear Company. The last collection in the series was made in 2004. She also had her own fragrance called "Cello, by Annette".


title: Annette Funicello

text: "Now that I've gone public with my illness, they can't do enough", she said in 1994. "They even send me home remedies to try. Everyone says, 'God bless you and I'm praying for you.' "


title: Annette Funicello

text: She made her final public appearance on September 13, 1998, at California's Multiple Sclerosis Society, along with Frankie Avalon.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Funicello's best friend was actress and singer Shelley Fabares, whom she had met in a catechism class when they were teens. Fabares was a bridesmaid at Funicello's first wedding. Funicello was also very close to fellow Mouseketeers Lonnie Burr (her first boyfriend), Sharon Baird, Doreen Tracey, Cheryl Holdridge, Disney co-star Tommy Kirk and beach-movie co-star Frankie Avalon. She dated Canadian singer/songwriter Paul Anka and he wrote his hit song "Puppy Love" about her.


title: Annette Funicello

text: Funicello was married to Jack L. Gilardi (1930–2019) from 1965 until 1981. They had three children: Gina Portman (born 1965), Jack Jr. (born 1970) and Jason (born 1974). In 1986, she married California harness racing horse breeder/trainer Glen D. Holt (1930–2018). The couple was frequently seen attending harness horse races at the Los Alamitos Race Course and Fairplex in Pomona in the 1980s and 1990s.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In March 2011, her longtime Encino, California, home caught fire. She suffered smoke inhalation, but was otherwise unharmed. After the fire, Funicello and Holt lived in a modest ranch that they had purchased decades earlier, located just south of Shafter, California (north of Bakersfield), where she lived her remaining years.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In early 1987, at around 45 years old, Funicello reunited with Frankie Avalon for a series of promotional concerts to promote their film "Back to the Beach". She began to experience dizziness, headaches, and balance issues and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. For the next five years, she hid her condition from her family and friends. In 1992, she publicly disclosed her diagnosis to combat rumors that her impaired ability to walk was the result of alcoholism. In 1993, she opened the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders at the California Community Foundation.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In 1995, Funicello appeared on the Disney TV documentary on the 40th anniversary of "The Mickey Mouse Club".


title: Annette Funicello

text: On October 6, 2012, the Canadian program "W5" profiled Funicello following her 15 years away from the public eye, revealing that her disease had severely damaged her nervous system. She had lost the ability to walk in 2004, had lost the ability to speak in 2009 and required a feeding tube, needing round-the-clock care in order to survive. Funicello's close friend Shelley Fabares also appeared in the profile piece.


title: Annette Funicello

text: On April 8, 2013, Funicello died at age 70 at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, California, from complications attributed to multiple sclerosis. Her family and Fabares were with her when she died. A private funeral was held at the Cherished Memories Memorial Chapel in Bakersfield. Commenting on her death, Walt Disney Company chairman and CEO Bob Iger said: Annette was and always will be a cherished member of the Disney family, synonymous with the word Mouseketeer, and a true Disney Legend. She will forever hold a place in our hearts as one of Walt Disney's brightest stars, delighting an entire generation of baby boomers with her jubilant personality and endless talent. Annette was well known for being as beautiful inside as she was on the outside, and she faced her physical challenges with dignity, bravery and grace. All of us at Disney join with family, friends and fans around the world in celebrating her extraordinary life.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In 1992, Funicello was inducted as a Disney Legend. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures on September 14, 1993; it is located at 6834 Hollywood Blvd.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In the Disney Village shopping and dining area of Disneyland Paris, a 1950s themed restaurant called Annette's Diner is named after her.


title: Annette Funicello

text: In 1980 the Californian power pop band Redd Kross released the song "Annette's Got The Hits" which was inspired by Funicello.


title: Anita Hill

text: Anita Faye Hill (born July 30, 1956) is an American lawyer, educator and author. She is a professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university's Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment.


title: Anita Hill

text: Anita Hill was born to a family of farmers in Lone Tree, Oklahoma, the youngest of Albert and Erma Hill's 13 children. Her family came from Arkansas, where her maternal grandfather Henry Eliot and all of her great-grandparents had been born into slavery. Hill was raised in the Baptist faith.


title: Anita Hill

text: Hill graduated from Morris High School, Oklahoma in 1973, where she was class valedictorian. After high school, she enrolled at Oklahoma State University and received a bachelor's degree in psychology with honors in 1977. She studied at Yale Law School, obtaining her Juris Doctor degree with honors in 1980.


title: Anita Hill

text: She was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1980 and began her law career as an associate with the Washington, D.C. firm of Wald, Harkrader & Ross. In 1981, she became an attorney-adviser to Clarence Thomas, who was then the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. When Thomas became chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1982, Hill served as his assistant, leaving the job in 1983.


title: Anita Hill

text: Hill then became an assistant professor at the Evangelical Christian O. W. Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University where she taught from 1983 to 1986. In 1986, she joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Law where she taught commercial law and contracts.


title: Anita Hill

text: In 1989, she became the first tenured African American professor at OU. She left the university in 1996 due to ongoing calls for her resignation that began after her 1992 testimony. In 1998, she became a visiting scholar at Brandeis University and, in 2015, a university professor at the school.


title: Anita Hill

text: In 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, a federal circuit judge, to succeed retiring Associate Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Senate hearings on his confirmation were initially completed with Thomas's good character being presented as a primary qualification for the high court because he had only been a judge for slightly more than one year. There had been little organized opposition to Thomas' nomination, and his confirmation seemed assured until a report of a private interview of Hill by the FBI was leaked to the press. The hearings were then reopened, and Hill was called to publicly testify.


title: Anita Hill

text: Hill said on October 11, 1991, in televised hearings that Thomas had sexually harassed her while he was her supervisor at the Department of Education and the EEOC. When questioned on why she followed Thomas to the second job after he had already allegedly harassed her, she said working in a reputable position within the civil rights field had been her ambition. The position was appealing enough to inhibit her from going back into private practice with her previous firm. She said that she only realized later in her life that the choice had represented poor judgment on her part, but that "at that time, it appeared that the sexual overtures ... had ended."


title: Anita Hill

text: According to Hill, Thomas asked her out socially many times during her two years of employment as his assistant, and after she declined his requests, he used work situations to discuss sexual subjects and push advances. "He spoke about ... such matters as women having sex with animals and films showing group sex or rape scenes," she said, adding that on several occasions Thomas graphically described "his own sexual prowess" and the details of his anatomy. Hill also recounted an instance in which Thomas examined a can of Coke on his desk and asked, "Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?" During the hearing, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch implied that "Hill was working in tandem with 'slick lawyers' and interest groups bent on destroying Thomas' chances to join the court." Thomas said he had considered Hill a friend whom he had helped at every turn, so when accusations of harassment came from her they were particularly hurtful and he said, "I lost the belief that if I did my best, all would work out."


title: Anita Hill

text: Four female witnesses waited in the wings to support Hill's credibility, but they were not called, due to what the "Los Angeles Times" described as a private, compromise deal between Republicans and the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, Democrat Joe Biden.


title: Anita Hill

text: Hill agreed to take a polygraph test. While senators and other authorities observed that polygraph results cannot be relied upon and are inadmissible in courts, Hill's results did support her statements. Thomas did not take a polygraph test. He made a vehement and complete denial, saying that he was being subjected to a "high-tech lynching for uppity blacks" by white liberals who were seeking to block a black conservative from taking a seat on the Supreme Court. After extensive debate, the United States Senate confirmed Thomas to the Supreme Court by a vote of 52–48, the narrowest margin since the 19th century.


title: Anita Hill

text: Members questioned Hill's credibility after the timeline of her events came into question and she lied about never seeing him again after leaving the firm. They mentioned the time delay of ten years between the alleged behavior by Thomas and Hill's accusations, and observed that Hill had followed Thomas to a second job and later had personal contacts with Thomas, including giving him a ride to an airport—behavior which they said would be inexplicable if Hill's allegations were true. Hill countered that she had come forward because she felt an obligation to share information on the character and actions of a person who was being considered for the Supreme Court. She testified that after leaving the EEOC, she had had two "inconsequential" phone conversations with Thomas, and had seen him personally on two occasions, once to get a job reference and the second time when he made a public appearance in Oklahoma where she was teaching.


title: Anita Hill

text: Doubts about the veracity of Hill's 1991 testimony persisted among conservatives long after Thomas took his seat on the Court. They were furthered by right-wing magazine "American Spectator" writer David Brock in his 1993 book "The Real Anita Hill", though he later recanted the claims he had made which he described in his book as "character assassination," and apologized to Hill. After interviewing a number of women who alleged that Thomas had frequently subjected them to sexually explicit remarks, "Wall Street Journal" reporters Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson wrote "", a book that concluded that Thomas had lied during his confirmation process. Richard Lacayo in his 1994 review of the book for "Time" magazine remarked, however, that "Their book doesn't quite nail that conclusion." In 2007, Kevin , a co-author of another book on Thomas, remarked that what happened between Thomas and Hill was "ultimately unknowable" by others, but that it was clear that "one of them lied, period." Writing in 2007, Neil Lewis of "The New York Times" remarked that, "To this day, each side in the epic he-said, she-said dispute has its unmovable believers."


title: Anita Hill

text: In 2007, Thomas published his autobiography, "My Grandfather's Son", in which he revisited the controversy, calling Hill his "most traitorous adversary", and writing that pro-choice liberals, who feared he would vote to overturn "Roe v. Wade" if he were seated on the Supreme Court, used the scandal against him. He described Hill as touchy and apt to overreact, and her work at the EEOC as mediocre. He acknowledged that three other former EEOC employees had backed Hill's story, but said they had all left the agency on bad terms. He also wrote that Hill "was a left-winger who'd never expressed any religious sentiments whatsoever ... and the only reason why she'd held a job in the Reagan administration was because I'd given it to her." Hill denied the accusations in an op-ed in "The New York Times" saying she would not "stand by silently and allow [Justice Thomas], in his anger, to reinvent me."


title: Anita Hill

text: In October 2010, Thomas's wife Virginia, a conservative activist, left a voicemail at Hill's office asking that Hill apologize for her 1991 testimony. Hill initially believed the call was a hoax and referred the matter to the Brandeis University campus police who alerted the FBI. After being informed that the call was indeed from Virginia Thomas, Hill told the media that she did not believe the message was meant to be conciliatory and said, "I testified truthfully about my experience and I stand by that testimony." Virginia Thomas responded that the call had been intended as an "olive branch".


title: Anita Hill

text: Shortly after the Thomas confirmation hearings, President George H. W. Bush dropped his opposition to a bill that gave harassment victims the right to seek federal damage awards, back pay, and reinstatement, and the law was passed by Congress. One year later, harassment complaints filed with the EEOC were up 50 percent and public opinion had shifted in Hill's favor. Private companies also started training programs to deter sexual harassment. When journalist Cinny Kennard asked Hill in 1991 if she would testify against Thomas all over again, Hill answered, "I'm not sure if I could have lived with myself if I had answered those questions any differently."


title: Anita Hill

text: The manner in which the Senate Judiciary Committee challenged and dismissed Hill's accusations of sexual harassment angered female politicians and lawyers. According to D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Hill's treatment by the panel was a contributing factor to the large number of women elected to Congress in 1992. "Women clearly went to the polls with the notion in mind that you had to have more women in Congress," she said. In their anthology, "All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave", editors Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell-Scott, and Barbara Smith described black feminists mobilizing "a remarkable national response to the Anita Hill–Clarence Thomas controversy.


title: Anita Hill

text: In 1992, a feminist group began a nationwide fundraising campaign and then obtained matching state funds to endow a professorship at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in honor of Hill. Conservative Oklahoma state legislators reacted by demanding Hill's resignation from the university, then introducing a bill to prohibit the university from accepting donations from out-of-state residents, and finally attempting to pass legislation to close down the law school. Elmer Zinn Million, a local activist, compared Hill to Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy. Certain officials at the university attempted to revoke Hill's tenure. After five years of pressure, Hill resigned. The University of Oklahoma Law School defunded the Anita F. Hill professorship in May 1999, without the position having ever been filled.


title: Anita Hill

text: On April 25, 2019, the presidential campaign team for Joe Biden for the 2020 United States presidential election disclosed that he had called Hill to express "his regret for what she endured" in his role as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, presiding over the Thomas confirmation hearings. Hill said the call from Biden left her feeling "deeply unsatisfied". On June 13, 2019, Hill clarified that she did not consider Biden's actions disqualifying, and would be open to voting for him. In May 2020, Hill argued that sexual assault allegations made against Donald Trump as well as the sexual assault allegation against Biden should be investigated and their results "made available to the public."


title: Anita Hill

text: On September 5, 2020, it was reported that Hill had vowed to vote for Biden and to work with him on gender issues.


title: Anita Hill

text: Hill continued to teach at the University of Oklahoma, though she spent two years as a visiting professor in California. She resigned her post in October 1996 and finished her final semester of teaching there. In her final semester, she taught a law school seminar on civil rights. An endowed chair was created in her name, but was later defunded without ever having been filled.


title: Anita Hill

text: Hill accepted a position as a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at University of California, Berkeley in January 1997, but soon joined the faculty of Brandeis University—first at the Women's Studies Program, later moving to the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. In 2011, she also took a counsel position with the Civil Rights & Employment Practice group of the plaintiffs' law firm Cohen Milstein.


title: Anita Hill

text: Over the years, Hill has provided commentary on gender and race issues on national television programs, including "60 Minutes", "Face the Nation", and "Meet the Press". She has been a speaker on the topic of commercial law as well as race and women's rights. She is also the author of articles that have been published in "The New York Times" and "Newsweek" and has contributed to many scholarly and legal publications in the areas of international commercial law, bankruptcy, and civil rights.


title: Anita Hill

text: In 1995, Hill co-edited "Race, Gender and Power in America: The Legacy of the Hill-Thomas Hearings" with Emma Coleman Jordan. In 1997 Hill published her autobiography, "Speaking Truth to Power", in which she chronicled her role in the Clarence Thomas confirmation controversy and wrote that creating a better society had been a motivating force in her life. She contributed the piece "The Nature of the Beast: Sexual Harassment" to the 2003 anthology "", edited by Robin Morgan. In 2011, Hill published her second book, "Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home", which focuses on the sub-prime lending crisis that resulted in the foreclosure of many homes owned by African-Americans. She calls for a new understanding about the importance of a home and its place in the American Dream. On March 26, 2015, the Brandeis Board of Trustees unanimously voted to recognize Hill with a promotion to Private University Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women's Studies.


title: Anita Hill

text: On December 16, 2017, the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace was formed, selecting Hill to lead its charge against sexual harassment in the entertainment industry. The new initiative was spearheaded by co-chair of the Nike Foundation Maria Eitel, venture capitalist Freada Kapor Klein, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and talent attorney Nina Shaw. The report found not only a saddening prevalence of continued bias but also stark differences in how varying demographics perceived discrimination and harassment.