E-Mail This Article to a Friend HISTORY LESSON Understated caption of the week BY BILL JENSEN

Underneath a picture of Memphis residents protesting the naming of Nathan Bedford Forrest Park in Tennessee last weekend, the Boston Globe described Forrest as simply a "Civil War general who fought the North." That’s a little like calling Hitler merely a "German leader who fought the Allies."

We offer a few other descriptions of Forrest the Globe could have used:

• FORREST WAS THE FIRST GRAND WIZARD OF THE KU KLUX KLAN.

• FORREST MADE HIS FORTUNE AS A SLAVE TRADER BEFORE THE WAR.

• FORREST PERSONALLY WHIPPED SLAVES, STRIPPING DOWN WOMEN AND HITTING THEM WITH A "LEATHER THONG DIPPED IN SALT WATER," AS NOTED BY THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER.

• FORREST COMMANDED TROOPS TO SLAUGHTER 231 SURRENDERING NORTHERNERS, HALF OF THEM BLACK, AT FORT PILLOW, TENNESSEE, IN 1864.

Understand now why the people of Memphis are so upset?