The Greater Memphis Chamber is mobilizing support for Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s request for a state waiver to allow the city to remove the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest in Health Sciences Park.

In advance of the Oct. 13 meeting on the Tennessee Historical Commission, where Strickland will make his case, the chamber’s board of directors has drafted a letter in behalf of the business community.

The letter calls the statue of the Confederate general, slave trader and Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard one of several “divisive symbols” that “hamper our city’s efforts to attract and retain top talent for the skilled workforce that is critical to our success.”

A letter Thursday, Oct. 5, to chamber members by Greater Memphis Chamber president and CEO Phil Trenary urges them to add their names to the letter to the commission.

“Our voices have the most strength when we come together and the more names and companies we can add to our appeal, the more weight it will hold when this issue comes up for debate with the THC,” Trenary writes in the letter.

He also says chamber leaders are talking with the city administration about “the best course of action” moving forward after next week’s meeting.

The chairman of the historical commission has told Strickland that the commission will not hear the city’s request for a waiver at the Oct. 13 meeting in Athens, Tennessee.