The issue that led to its creation was the unanimous decision of the City Council of Memphis and Shelby County to remove statues of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Nathan Bedford Forrest from public parks.
The president of Memphis Greenspace is Van Turner, a Shelby County Commissioner.
He announced that it plans to buy more parks in the future.
[2] In 2019, a legal action brought against Memphis Greenspace's removal of the statues was dismissed by the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
[3] In 2020, Memphis Greenspace agreed to the removal of the remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife Anne, which had been buried beneath the equestrian statue of Forrest in Health Science Park, to another site.