Petition launched to replace Confederate monuments with statues of Dolly Parton in Tennessee

‘Parton has given more to this country and this state than those confederate officers could ever have hoped to take away’, petition says

A petition has been launched to replace confederate monuments in Tennessee with statues of country music star Dolly Parton.

The news comes amid growing calls to remove statues of racist historical figures. Protesters in the US and the UK have been removing and vandalising monuments to problematic figures such as Christopher Columbus and Bristol slave trader Edward Colston.

The petition, entitled “REPLACE ALL CONFEDERATE STATUES IN TENNESSEE WITH DOLLY PARTON”, was created by Alex Parsons, and can be signed on Change.org.

Parsons’s proposal reads: “Tennessee is littered with statues memorialising confederate officers. History should not be forgotten, but we need not glamorise those who do not deserve our praise. Instead, let us honour a true Tennessee hero, Dolly Parton.

“Aside from her beautiful music, which has touched the hearts and lives of millions of Americans, Dolly Parton’s philanthropic heart has unquestionably changed the world for the better... Dolly Parton has given more to this country and this state than those confederate officers could ever have hoped to take away.”

It concludes: “Let’s replace the statues of men who sought to tear this country apart with a monument to the woman who has worked her entire life to bring us closer together.”

The “9 to 5” singer-songwriter is renowned for her extensive philanthropic work, much of it conducted through her charity organisation, the Dollywood foundation. A statue of Parton already stands in her home town of Sevierville, Tennessee.

In the UK, scaffolding has been erected around the statue of former prime minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London, to deter people from toppling the statue during forthcoming protests.

Confederate monuments have also been torn down by protesters in the state of Virginia, with one falling statue injuring a man standing underneath.