In downtown Memphis, two public parks have long been fixtures of the city, places that people of all races have come to know and accept as a part of the landscape.

But there is now a move afoot to remove the names of Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest, president of the Confederacy and a founding father of the Ku Klux Klan, respectively, from the parks, even though there appears to be a great amount of division amongst black Memphians on whether or not a name change is necessary.

Saturday, a rally will be held not far from the parks to push city officials to move the names of men associated with racist acts of the past. Rev. Al Sharpton will headline the rally in hopes of getting more people on board, Judge D’Army Bailey, a Shelby County Circuit Court judge, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

“There have been thousands of blacks who’ve signed petitions asking (City Council) to rename the park. Rev. Sharpton looked at this as a battle in Memphis,” Bailey said. “He believes it’s a very significant national battle and one that needs to be won.”

Blacks make up approximately more than 60 percent of Memphis’ 650,100 residents, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Bailey said that it’s high time that all black Memphians, including Mayor Willie W. Herenton, demand that the names of Davis and Forrest, the KKK’s first Grand Wizard, be removed from parks that, in essence, add to the beauty of Memphis. While just names, Bailey said they symbol a time in which black people were subject to extreme hardships.

“People ask the question, ‘What’s in a name?'” Bailey said. “But I ask them, why do they ban Nazi symbols and not have any recognition of Adolph Hitler in Germany? Why did the United States forces pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein as their first act against tyranny?

“Names and symbols represent either an allegiance to or disavowal of something,” Bailey added. “It’s well past the time to remove allegiance to those whose prime intention was to erase a whole race of people.”

Bailey, a self-proclaimed activist, believes that blacks must always speak out against injustice of any kind. While a student at Southern University in the early 1960s, Bailey was expelled because of his work with the anti-segregation movement. It’s a stance he wishes Mayor Herenton would also take, Bailey said.

“He has said that he has the authority to change the name, and he does not think it needs to be changed,” Bailey said of Herenton, a four-term mayor who was elected the city’s first black mayor in 1991. Bailey maintains that Herenton is fearful of allowing the city to become engulfed in yet another racial controversy that may give a black eye to Memphis, still solely viewed by many as the place where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

Gale Carson, a spokesperson for Herenton, said the mayor was unavailable for comment Monday. He did, however, issue a public statement about the statues’ names in which he alludes to a rally for renaming the statues as a possible hindrance to the city’s image.

“It is in the best interest of the City of Memphis that this issue is addressed carefully and respectfully of diverse perspectives,” Herenton said last week. “Believe me, I understand and share the same commitment many citizens have (against) bigotry and racial hatred, but digging up and moving graves or renaming city parks is not the proper way of dealing with this issue. We don’t want to create a spectacle for the national media.”

Johnnie Turner, executive director of the NAACP’s Memphis branch, said ever since she was a little girl, black Memphians have had a problem with the David and Forrest parks. But in 2005, Turner told BlackAmericaWeb.com, there are bigger issues to address than the name of a public park.

“Anybody, particularly an African-American, should find the names reprehensible, but there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s reprehensible,” Turner said, adding that for as long as she can remember, some group or another has made it their business to petition for a name change, to no avail.

While her office is working to stop predatory lending practices that cause senior citizens to lose their homes, the poor state of public education or an issue of alleged police brutality in which a young black man was shot at 22 times by police, Turner said many find the fight for a name change important, but not nearly as significant as the day-to-day problems affecting blacks in Memphis and abroad.

“At this point, we are involved in so many more projects that are germane to the racism that’s present currently and working adversely against our people,” Turner said, adding that although she agrees with Bailey’s “Hitler” analogy, she believes that there comes a point where people need to move on.

“Hey, we have no qualms for anybody who wants to take up that cause. We’re saying, 'Go for it,'” said Turner, who admits that she still becomes angered when she walks near the parks and sees the signage.

Still, Turner believes that some battles may be bigger than others, adding, “If it were a priority of ours, we’d be out there, too.”

Rev. Dwight Montgomery, pastor of Memphis’ Annesdale Cherokee Baptist Church, agreed with Turner that the names are offensive. But like Turner, Montgomery, who is also president of Memphis’ chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that there are certain ways to go about bringing effective change.

“Not only is the SCLC-Memphis chapter opposed to the present name of the park, but I am opposed to it too. By the same token, we have greater and higher priorities of which we are working on,” Montgomery said, pointing to a fight his organization is leading to restore the state-sponsored healthcare of tens of thousands of Tennessee residents.

To quell any potential problems, Montgomery will oversee the Prayer Summit for Racial Harmony on Thursday, an attempt to bring people of all faiths and races together to build solidarity surrounding this issue.

“This is going to be an ecumenical and multi-racial way to help us come together, pray and work to make sure that whatever happens in relationship to this park issue, nothing will get out of hand and no negative things will cause further polarization,” Montgomery told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Both Turner and Montgomery say that the issue has obviously divided black Memphians. Turner said she also resents the fact that Sharpton is being brought in to address a local issue.

Calls made to Sharpton’s New York-based National Action Network were not returned Monday.

With no united front, Turner doubts that much of anything can be accomplished. Bailey, whose brother, Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey is also involved in the name change movement, said it’s the message, not the number of people on board, that will matter most in the end.

“Don’t ask me about the consciousness of my brothers and sisters,” Bailey said, adding that, historically, too many blacks tend to be slow in addressing issues of significance.

“It’s always a small group that sparks a change. That’s just a part of our historical process,” Bailey said, pointing to the North Carolina A&T students whose refusal to leave a Woolworth counter spearheaded a civil rights moment. “But just like the students in Greensboro, if we get 10 people, plus Rev. Sharpton, you’ve got the beginning of a revolution in Memphis.”