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Lisa Rein
Reporter covering federal agencies and government management in the Trump administration
A senior Veterans Affairs official said he had removed from his office in Washington, DC, a portrait of the Ku Klux Klan's first big wizard after injured employees started signing a petition to present to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.
David J. Thomas Sr. is the Deputy Executive Director of the Office of Small Business and Disadvantaged Businesses of VA, which certifies veteran-owned businesses seeking contracts with the government. His management team is mainly African-American.
Thomas said that he had removed the painting on Monday after a Washington Post reporter explained that his subject, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was a Confederate general and a slave trader became the first character in KKK's trademark in 1868. He ignored Forrest's affiliation with the Hate Group. , which formed after the civil war to maintain white control over blacks newly released by violence and intimidation.
A basic search on Forrest's name on Google gives various biographies detailing his role in the Confederation and the resulting strains of white supremacy.
"It was just a nice copy I bought and I thought it was fine," said Thomas. He said he knew Forrest only "as a Southern general in the Civil War" and kept the portrait in his basement before decorating a new, larger office at VA's headquarters a few months ago.
Thomas, who has been with VA since 2013, is an employee of the federal government – not a politician appointed by President Trump, who includes members of white nationalist groups. Trump was criticized for his lukewarm reaction to the murderous demonstration of white nationalists in Charlottesville last year.
[Homeland Security staffer with white nationalist ties attended White House policy meetings]
The painting, by the artist Don Stivers, Forrest watch wearing a gray military uniform and riding a horse. he is titled "No Abandonment" and represents the general fleeing a snowy Tennessee Battlefield in 1862.
"I do not know what to do with this thing," Thomas told La Poste, "except to destroy it."
A manager who reports to Thomas disputed part of his account, claiming that Forrest's portrait was posted in Thomas's previous office., from 2015. When he changed office in recent months, Thomas led the VA Maintenance personnel must install a very high power outlet on the wall to light up the portrait, said Warden Michelle Gardner-Ince.
Thomas has 14 executives, including nine black.
Racial tensions have erupted between Thomas and several of his employees, at least three of whom have been the subject of complaints of racial discrimination. A lawyer representing two of these employees said that the portrait is proof that Thomas is not comfortable with African Americans.
"You do not hire someone who puts a photo of the Klan in his office unless you are" insensitive to the breed, said lawyer, John Rigby.
Gardner-Ince, a program officer whose case is pending before the Commission for Equal Opportunities in Employment and who claims to have retaliated against her for complaining about the poor performance evaluation, said he spoke to Thomas several years ago from the art of his office., which also includes a portrait of George Washington praying beside his horse during the independence war at his camp at Valley Forge.
"He said," My wife told me I should not post this picture, "referring to Forrest's portrait, Gardner-Ince recalled," But I said, I did not care; I like it. & # 39; "
"It's been here a long time," she said.
Thomas did not answer the following questions about his conversation with Gardner-Ince.
Gardner-Ince or the other directors supervised by Thomas apparently drew attention to the meaning of this portrait only last week, when a union delegate attending a meeting held in Thomas's office recognized Forrest as a member founder of KKK. A colleague told the shop steward that the shop steward was appalled by the fact that VA has thousands of black employees who care for an increasingly diverse population of veterans. .
[Confederate pride and prejudice: Some white Northerners see a flag rooted in racism as a symbol of patriotism]
The VA Local of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents employees of VA's central offices, drafted the petition this week asking for the removal of the portrait.
"Our employees denounce the display of this offensive image and believe that appropriate action should be taken," says the petition, describing Forrest as not only the first great wizard of the KKK, but also the commander of a massacre of 1864 Union troops, mostly black, who surrendered after the Battle of Fort Pillow in Tennessee.
Douglas Massey, president of AFGE Local 17, said he collected 75 signatures on Monday. at the headquarters cafeteria and plans to continue until there are 200, although Thomas told The Post that he had taken the portrait. Massey said he found Thomas's explanation offensive and "hard to believe."
He described the set in Thomas's office as "very deliberate and tedious".
"This office could be a museum. There seems to be so much thinking about decoration, "he said. "If I had a picture of someone in my office, I would like to know who it is."
[Trump’s VA pick, once a defender of Confederate symbols, built his career serving polarizing figures]
Curt Cashour, spokesperson for VA, said in an email that the agency "strives to create a comfortable and welcoming workplace for all employees" and stressed that in his first month as secretary, Wilkie has signed a policy that ensures this VA "does not tolerate behavior that interferes with the professional performance of an individual or creates an intimidating, offensive or hostile environment".
"Achieving the secretary's goal is largely based on the individual judgment and common sense of employees at all levels," said Cashour.
However, he stated that Thomas "did not receive any complaints from his colleagues and that he was only informed of these concerns by the Washington Post," adding, "Mr. Thomas immediately taken the imprint in question … and the problem is solved. "
Thomas asked why the union official had not told him that some people might find the portrait shocking and added that none of his employees had ever complained about this portrait. "Do you know how many people have I had in and out of my office?" He said. "They say," It's a beautiful copy. "
A group of former Confederate soldiers formed the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee in 1865 and later asked Forrest to be the first great wizard. Forrest was recognized as a military strategist and, in the last years of his life, publicly denounced the violence and racism practiced by the Klan.During the reconstruction, he was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, but he remains one of the most controversial personalities of the Civil War era for his role in the Fort Pillow Massacre.
Although public memorials were erected throughout the south to honor Forrest, many were taken in the midst of recent national fury on such statues.
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