Latest news with #ConfederateCivilWar
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
South Dakota governor asks Trump to build promised statue garden and put it near Mount Rushmore
A conceptual drawing by Storyland Studios of a National Garden of American Heroes near Mount Rushmore. (Courtesy of South Dakota Governor's Office) South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden sent President Donald Trump an invitation Tuesday to fulfill a promise from five years ago: the creation of a 'National Garden of American Heroes.' And Rhoden wants Trump to put the statue garden in South Dakota's Black Hills. 'In fact, we have a plot of land available in sight of Mount Rushmore that would be ideal for this fantastic effort,' Rhoden wrote in a letter to Trump. That plot of land, according to Rhoden, is privately owned by the Lien family, which is willing to donate it. Members of the family own and operate Pete Lien & Sons Inc., a mining, construction aggregate, and concrete company based in Rapid City. Additional materials made public by the Governor's Office include a letter from the Lien family, which says the land 'straddles the iconic Doane Robinson tunnel,' although an attached map appears to depict the land as just north of the tunnel. Motorists frequently stop at the tunnel for a framed view of the mountain carving. The Lien family has worked with Storyland Development, of California, to produce conceptual drawings of the statue garden, which are included in the materials from the Governor's Office. The materials also include a 2020 letter from then-Gov. Kristi Noem, who proposed at the time that the statue garden should be built 'at Mount Rushmore National Memorial as an expansion of the Memorial site.' She went on to mention the bronze statues of presidents in downtown Rapid City and the statues of governors in Pierre and wrote, 'I am confident these organizations would be amenable to a short-term loan of statues to the National Garden.' Mount Rushmore is managed by the National Park Service, and much of the surrounding land is managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Black Hills National Forest. Parcels of private land, many of them claimed during the gold rush era of the late 1800s, are scattered throughout the forest. Trump made his statue garden promise at a Mount Rushmore fireworks celebration on July 3, 2020. Rhoden has invited Trump back to Mount Rushmore next year for another fireworks display and a celebration of the nation's 250th birthday. The 2020 announcement came during a speech in which Trump said agents of 'cancel culture' were 'trying to tear down statues of our Founders' and 'deface our most sacred memorials.' George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis police officer had occurred two months earlier, adding fuel to a reexamination of historic monuments and statues associated with racial injustice. That summer, numerous statues were vandalized, removed or both, including many that honored Confederate Civil War figures. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Trump said in the 2020 speech that those efforts were 'erasing our heritage.' He called for Americans to 'speak up loudly and strongly and powerfully and defend the integrity of our country.' 'So today,' Trump said at the time, 'under the authority vested in me as president of the United States, I am announcing the creation of a new monument to the giants of our past. I am signing an executive order to establish the National Garden of American Heroes, a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.' Trump issued the executive order that day and another one on Jan. 18, 2021 — two days before he left office at the end of his first term — calling for the creation of the garden without identifying a site. The second order said the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities 'should target spending one-twelfth of the discretionary funds available to their agencies' on commissioning the statues. Each of those agencies received $207 million last year. One-12th of that amount would be $17.2 million apiece. The second order also included a list of about 250 people to be honored with statues, ranging from historical figures such as George Washington and Harriet Tubman to modern names including Kobe Bryant and Alex Trebek.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Knoxvillian, former UT professor represented defendant in famous Scopes Monkey Trial
The Scopes Trial that occurred 100 years ago was considered one of the more unusual in 20th-century America in attempting to delve into the debate of creationism versus evolution. Also unusual was a Knoxville man involved in the trial. John Randolph Neal Jr. represented defendant John Scopes, the Rhea County instructor charged with teaching evolution, then a violation of a new state law. While Neal was not as well-known as fellow defense team member Clarence Darrow or prosecution lead attorney and former presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, he still stood out during that Dayton, Tennessee, trial and in his career. And it was not just for his praised legal skills, but also for his seemingly unkempt appearance and lax grading standards while he was earlier a University of Tennessee law instructor. Born in Rhea County in 1876 as the son of Confederate Civil War veteran and Third District U.S. Congressman John Neal Sr., he had taught at the UT law school from 1909-23. While popular and respected among his students, his unorthodox mannerisms resulted in a clash with Dean Malcolm McDermott. This included accusations of not always showing up for class and talking more about current events than giving legal lessons. As a result, he was one of several professors fired throughout campus by the UT Board of Trustees in 1923, despite his support among students. He had also been supportive of a fired psychology professor, Jesse Sprowls, who had taught evolution. To him, as someone who deeply cherished American freedoms, the situation was more about man than monkeys. 'I don't care whether man descended from a monkey or whether the story of Genesis or evolution was true, to me it was a fight for the freedom of teaching,' he was quoted following his death as having said. He apparently left UT amicably, but his inner anger over what he perceived as the world's wrongs remained and he would continue to fight them in legal circles. The former UT undergraduate, who had gone to law school at Vanderbilt University and received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia, would go on to start his own law school named after his father. It was primarily for part-time and night students and thrived until about 1943, when a law was passed saying law schools had to be full-time colleges. The former state senator – who in later years would often run unsuccessfully for the state's highest offices – was also known to support liberal and progressive causes. That included his strong advocacy for a public Tennessee Valley Authority to help the larger region instead of just private companies building power plants in places like North Alabama. He had also been involved in cases involving civil liberties and workers' rights. When the Scopes Trial began, he had volunteered to lead the defense. He clashed with attorney Clarence Darrow, who later joined the team, over strategy. Noted reporter and writer H.L. Mencken, who covered the trial, did call Neal a brilliant attorney, however. The July 1925 trial, which was held in a still-standing courthouse designed by Walter Chamberlin of Knoxville, had resulted in Scopes being found guilty, although the verdict was thrown out on a technicality regarding the fine. The Butler Act preventing the teaching of evolution was repealed in 1967. Despite all his high-profile work and good mind in conversation throughout his life, Neal was always a study in contrasts. Besides his unusual dress and appearance habits, the lifelong bachelor preferred living in hotels. A check in some old city directories at the McClung Historical Collection in downtown shows him beginning before World War I as living in such places as the Stratford Hotel at 409 Wall and the Vendome at 417 W. Clinch Ave. He later lived at the Oxford Hotel across Clinch Avenue and at the time of the trial lived at the Atkin Hotel at Gay Street and Depot Avenue. He later lived in the Watauga Hotel at 316 N. Gay St. before moving to the Spring City area beginning in the late 1940s. The Watauga building later had several floors taken down and became the site of Regas' restaurant for years. His college at the time of the Scopes Trial was at the Union National Bank building at 302½ S. Gay St. before relocating to the Fretz Building, later called the McTownlee Building, at 603 Market St. The UT law school during his time there was in now-razed Old College on the hill, then South Hall, and later Ayres Hall. Neal lived in Spring City and attended Spring City Methodist Church for more than 10 years until his death from pneumonia in a Rockwood hospital on Nov. 23, 1959, at the age of 83. He was buried at Ault Cemetery in Roane County, with former law students among his pallbearers Despite his sometimes-unkempt appearance, he tried during his lifetime to bring order to the legal issues regarding civil liberties for all. For those wanting more information on Neal, Knoxville historian Jack Neely will be speaking on him and the trial at noon March 24 in Room 132 of the UT College of Law. This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxvillian represented defendant in famous Scopes Monkey Trial
