Crump: Idaho, Rushmore & KKK

What’s the most famous sculpture in America? Mount Rushmore, of course, created by an Idahoan who once served on the national board of directors of the Ku Klux Klan. Gutzon Borglum was born in the southeastern Idaho hamlet of St. Charles in 1867, the son of a polygamist woodcarver who quit the Mormon church and discarded the boy and his mother. Borglum learned his art in New York and Europe, and was famous in 1915 when the United Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned him to sculpt a bust of Robert E. Lee on Stone Mountain northeast of Atlanta. His fee was paid by the KKK. Biographers Audrey and Howard Shaff say Borglum joined the Klan — although the artist later denied it — to curry favor with his new patrons/ Steve Crump , Twin Falls Times-News. More here .

Question: Does the connection between Borglum and the KKK diminish your appreciation of Mount Rushmore in any way?