One or more people in Nashville have reportedly vandalized another statue in Nashville, this time on the grounds of the Cordell Hull State Office Building, where state legislators have offices and hold hearings.
Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Andy Sher tweeted a photo Saturday of a statue covered in pink paint.
Looks like Nashville protesters plopped pink paint on Confederate cavalaryman statue outside #TNLeg’s Cordell Hull Bldg late Thurs/early Fri. Statute sculpted by Puryear Sims. Probably thought it’s Nathan Bedford Forrest tho I cant find anything saying it is. At any rate … pic.twitter.com/3MbsU5qByE
— Andy Sher (@AndySher1) June 21, 2020
“Looks like Nashville protesters plopped pink paint on Confederate cavalaryman statue outside #TNLeg’s Cordell Hull Bldg late Thurs/early Fri. Statute sculpted by Puryear Sims. Probably thought it’s Nathan Bedford Forrest tho I cant find anything saying it is. At any rate,” Sher tweeted.
The sculptor’s actual name, however, was Puryear Mims.
According to data.Nashville.gov, Mims named the statue “Soldier and Farmer — The Equestrian Group.”
Two other Mims’ statues are located at the Cordell Hull Building — “Industry” and “Pioneer Family.”
People may view photos of all three statues at dummeraugust.com
The Tennessee Star could find no passages online describing what “Soldier and Farmer” represents, other than one on NashvilleDowntown.com describing the history of the Cordell Hull Building.
“Each corner of the building features a sculpture grouping by noted sculptor Puryear Mims, depicting Tennesseans at Home, on the Farm, in Industry, and at War,” according to the website.
Mims died in 1975 at the age of 69, according to the Dec. 22 edition of The Tennessean that year. The paper said Mims was a nationally known sculptor and artist and a retired professor at Vanderbilt University. Mims was best known for his statues at Fort Nashboro of James Robertson and John Donelson, two of Nashville’s founders, the paper reported after Mims died.
As reported this month, protesters in Nashville toppled a statue of Edward Carmack, a state lawmaker in the early 1900s and newspaper publisher who had racist views and wrote editorials lambasting the writings of prominent Tennessee civil rights journalist Ida B. Wells.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Soldier and Farmer” by Drummer August.
Remember Glastnost over thirty years ago in Eastern Europe where new Democracy advocates tore down statues of Lenin and Company? I don’t remember any conservatives in the U.S. protesting that type of vandalism. These Confederate statues symbolize the same anti-democratic values that Lenin symbolized, only worse as the former advocated slavery based on skin color.
This article, like so many others recently, ‘glosses over’ Edward Carmack. Let me briefly correct that.
Edward Ward Carmack (November 5, 1858 – November 9, 1908) was an attorney, newspaperman, and political figure who served as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1901 to 1907.
Following his political service, and after an unsuccessful run for Governor of Tennessee, he became editor of the one-year-old NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN. He was shot to death on November 9, 1908 over a feud precipitated by Duncan Brown Cooper for his editorial comments in the paper.
We certainly do not want to fail to give The Tennessean it’s due–now do we? (sarcasm)