Negroes at Forrest's funeral

The Appeal announced Nathan Bedford Forrest's death in front-
page columns bordered in black. Shelby Countians whose elected
representatives did so much to frustrate his postbellum dream
arrived in mobs at his brother Jesse's door; admitted, they
peered inside a casket at an "emaciated" corpse wearing the
uniform of a Confederate lieutenant general. "Strange as it
might appear to those ignorant of General Forrest's true
character," the Appeal reported, the horde of visitants
included "hundreds of colored men, women, and children [who]
flocked to . .. ask . . . permission to view the remains. . . .
[The blacks] manifested not only a deep interest in the
proceedings, but evidenced a genuine sorrow in the death of
the great soldier." On the morning of October 31 alone, the
Appeal said, more than 500 blacks viewed the body; of that
number, it felt constrained to add, "not a single one was
heard to say anything. . . [not] in praise of General Forrest."

From Nathan Bedford Forrest - a Biography  by Jack Hurst page 380