Oldest Statue of John Brown
Kansas City, Kansas
"Bloody Kansas" got its nickname in part because of John Brown, an 1850s abolitionist with good intentions but a bad reputation for killing those who disagreed with him. Even a half-century after his death most Americans preferred to forget about John Brown -- but not the students of Western University, an all-black college on the outskirts of Kansas City. In 1911 they pooled their resources and paid a sculptor in Italy to carve a life-size marble statue of Brown -- the first ever -- then had it shipped to their campus where it was erected atop a seven foot granite pedestal with much ceremony.
The statue still stands where it was unveiled a century ago, but nowadays it's mostly unheralded. The surrounding neighborhood has fallen on hard times, and Western University went out of business in 1948.