Memphis’ First Catholic Bishop Replaced on Downtown Mural After Child Sexual Abuse Accusations

WREG.com News Channel 3 ^ | 9/8/19 | Nina Harrelson

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis’ first Catholic bishop has been replaced on a mural downtown months after he was included in a list of clergymen accused of molesting children.

The "Upstanders Mural" – on a wall across from the National Civil Rights Museum – is supposed to honor heroes, but after allegations of child sex abuse against the late Carroll Dozier surfaced earlier this year, the group that painted the mural decided he no longer belongs there.

“I would certainly say that that would be their right to change that. And I think as time changes with people, society changes, ideas change, beliefs change, and I think you have to go with that," Bob Gray, who's visiting Memphis from Door County, Wis., said. "If you don't change, if you don't continue, you're never going to progress."

Pat Moore, of Chicago, Ill., shared the same sentiments.

“If the bishop was guilty of molesting children, I mean, I don’t think it’s any good reason to have his face memorialized on a city wall," he said. “The bishop was human. He had his shortcomings it seems. He should be forgiven, I guess, but it doesn’t mean we have to not recognize what he did.”

Dozier was the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Memphis and served from 1971 to 1982.