Yes, there are good times to move statues

There once was a statue of William Jennings Bryan standing before the main entrance of the Nebraska state capitol in Lincoln.

Who was Bryan? He was a Christian fundamentalist who ended his political career, and life, fanatically defending Prohibition and fighting against teaching evolution in public schools. He was also a racist who defended Jim Crow segregation largely based on his biblical beliefs.

The erection of the statue was never without controversy in Nebraska. Republicans hated commemorating an eminent Democrat and a grandfather of the New Deal. By the time the statue was in place, historians had already caught onto the shallowness of Bryan’s intellect and some of the fraudulent aspects of his populism. The characterization of him as the fanatical persecutor of evolutionists in the popular play and movie “Inherit the Wind” sealed his reputation as an anti-intellectual mediocrity. He had become a joke and an embarrassment even to progressives and Democrats.

In the year of Nebraska’s Centennial the statue was unceremoniously moved to its present location on the campus of a hospital named in his honor. The consensus was that stupidity and mediocrity deserved no public displays of affection.

The South could learn something from Nebraska.

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 8:21 AM with the headline "Yes, there are good times to move statues."