US official forced to remove portrait of KKK leader from office

The painting depicts the first grand wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest riding a horse

Capitol building
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

A senior US official has removed a portrait of the first Ku Klux Klan grand wizard from his office in Washington, D.C., after coworkers signed a petition to have it taken down.

David J Thomas Sr, deputy executive director of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), told the Washington Post he was not aware the subject in the portrait, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was a leader of the white supremacist organisation.

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