He was named about his relative named Forrest, who was part of a group that wore bed sheets and rode around on horses that also wore bed sheets. - KKK reference.
Forrest was at the U. of Ark. during the time of integration, and picked up the book dropped by one of the Little Rock 9.
He coined the term 'Shit Happens' and the smiley face t-shirt.
He was at the University of Alabama, not Arkansas. George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama is blocking the entrance in a famous scene in American history known as "The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door." [1]
My dad was a professor at the University of Georgia during this time and still talks about what it was like being in the south at that time. Really fascinating to hear him describe it. He actually drove through Arkansas on a university research field trip right when desegregation was beginning to be enforced and saw the National Guard in place to enforce it.
