Sculpted Freedom
from the August, 2009 MEMPHIS DOWNTOWNER
Justice
Film master Francis Ford Coppola did not give her a speaking role, but he did use her to open his 1997 film adaptation of John Grisham’s “The Rainmaker.” Not bad for a then 87-year-old girl who still today is working her full time job of watching over the Shelby County Courthouse even though she just shy of her 100th birthday.
Her name is Justice. Along with her sisters, Liberty, Peace and Prosperity and her brothers, Wisdom and Authority, they are the courthouse statues and with a little help over the years, still look great for their age. As recognizable these statues are, there is more to the Court House statuary than these six. We will get back to them later.
Inside the courthouse is a statue given to the city in 1859 that is old enough to be their grandfather. Andrew Jackson was the first Tennessean to occupy the White House, the first statue to stand in the middle of Court Square and Memphis’ first statue controversy. It comes and goes, but locals and out of towners complain that Memphis’ statuary honoring confederate soldiers is not in keeping with the times and should be removed because of modern sensitivity. Likewise, Memphians of the 1860’s did not approve of Jackson’s quote on the pedestal “Our Federal Union, It must and shall be preserved,” so someone removed it due to the prevailing politics of the time. The statue was repaired in 1908 and on the statue today the repair is obvious where the quotation was restored. Looking at the newer piece of marble you can almost hear the hammer and chisel of an angry Memphian chipping away at the pedestal.
Another thing… Andrew Jackson is facing Adams, named for the father of the man he defeated in the 1828 election… Almost ironic as having General Forrest’s statue facing Union Avenue.
Now to the outside…. Chief Executive Secretary of the Circuit Court Clerk’s office, Sherri Carter, is often the tour guide for groups like the Hickory Hill Elementary Students who visited last May walking through the halls and visiting the courtroom of Judge Karen Williams. The students and teachers posed for photos around the six giants sitting at the Second Street and Adams Avenue entrances. “It helps me to remember them if I say them in alphabetical order, “she says “Authority, Justice, Liberty, Peace, Prosperity and Wisdom. They represent the justice system. “
Prosperity
Think how these all work together. Our society is based on the protection of inherent rights of the individual which is known as LIBERTY. And it takes WISDOM to understand how we protect those fundamental freedoms without interfering with the rights others. That is the concept of JUSTICE. Justice is merely a concept without the AUTHORITY to back it up. And a society that has Authority without Justice has no liberty. And with an expectation of justice and authority being met, our society maintains PEACE which is necessary for citizens to pursue their freedoms and dreams enabling PROSPERITY to follow.
“I like giving tours but at first I was a little nervous. I learn something new every time,” Carter says who first came to work at the courthouse in 1975, left for twelve years while her children where small then returned in 1992. “I always bring up the statues, but people do not often ask about them.”
Perhaps they should because the story is compelling. The craftsman behind these works is Scotsman John Massey Rhind, one of the founders of the National Sculpture Society, who has works in Gettysburg Battlefield, New York City and Philadelphia. Each piece is cut from a single piece of marble—Tennessee marble--of course. And each one has its own distinct character. There is the youthful face Prosperity, an attractive young woman who looks like she could be a first year law student at University of Memphis. Authority has the stern look in his eyes as he puts his fist down on the chair. Wisdom is the wise old sage looking like an artist’s depiction of Moses. Justice is blind to person group or stature and can see only law and facts. The $5,000 the county spent on each of the sculptures was no small change especially by 1909 standards. But how many other investments are in that great shape for one hundred years?
Authority
In the early part of the last century, Shelby County’s courthouse which was a renovated hotel and a Civil War hospital for both sides, sat where the Canon Center is today. The County was growing and needed a new courthouse and Architect James Gambel Rogers was selected to build the massive edifice which was something unlike Memphians had seen. His lifetime resume’ reads just as impressive as Rhind’s with several buildings at Yale University—his alma mater – where one of his creations, The Sterling Library, houses 4 million volumes. He has many other structures throughout the Northeast.
“James Gambel Rogers was one of the foremost architects of the day,” says attorney Charles Perkins. Perkins was chairman the restoration committee that restored the courthouse and grounds from 1980 when planning began until 1992, when the sidewalks were improved. “The educated people of the day were educated in classical Greek and Roman architecture. I think the statues were keeping with that theme,” he says.
So whether or not you know your Doric columns from your Ionic and Corinthians, anyone can see this Greco Roman structure, which will celebrate its 100th birthday October 15th , is absolutely nothing like the old courthouse. Zeus and Hera would be right at home here.
And so is Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, her head emanates from the pediments at the top of the Courthouse. Some three stories above the streets these sculptures also give that Parthenon-look as well, representing the different types of law- Religious law, Roman law, Common law, Civil law and Criminal law.
One of those pediments has had its share of bad luck. The pediment on the Washington Ave side has statues representing Prudence, Courage, Integrity, Learning, Mercy and Temperance. In 1943 the westernmost statue in the group, “Learning,” was struck by lightning, beheading her, but she was repaired shortly afterwards. Then the easternmost statue, “Integrity” lost her head twice. First when she was hit by a crane in 1965 then eleven years later when her head fell into the back window of a 1976 Chevy Nova. Newspaper photos of the car’s owner showed her not in the mood to make the jokes the reader of this article may be coming up with now.
Andrew Jackson
Memphians in the last one hundred years have introduced the automobile and its pollution to the statues, but keep in mind in the early part of the last century most everyone heated their homes and businesses with coal heaters which made the air of 1909 quite dirty as well. In their lifetimes, Memphis weather has put the statues in a 108 degree sauna(1980) and a minus 13 degree deep freeze(1963). They have been buried in as much as 18” of snow (1968), suffered merciless wind (2003) and dealt with enough heat; rain and humidity to make any species of moss or mold want to visit our town. And there are other issues that arise. “The only maintenance I think we need is for the pigeon…” Sherri Carter stops herself in mid sentence. “That’s terrible!” But perhaps more terrible is the well- meaning things done to the statues like the sandblasting done in 1972 to remove to dirt and pollution from the stone but damaged the pieces. In the 1980’s the remodeling efforts brought back Rhind’s vision for the six statues.
No one has any idea what Memphis will look like in 2109, but between now and then many other cases will be heard, more John Grisham films will be shot and more people will walk through and around the courthouse and take a second look and those statues and ask themselves, “who are those people?”
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