History
Completed in 1895, the Confederate Monument in Louisville was built with funding from the Kentucky Women's Confederate Monument Association, costing $12,000. Its dedication was on May 6, 1895, done so quickly in order to coincide with the 29th Grand Army of the Republic annual reunion.
Initially, the monument was built away from the University's campus at 3rd and Shipp Streets, but was moved in 1954 when the Eastern Parkway viaduct over the campus was built. During the 1920s and 1940s there were plans to remove the monument for road construction, until public sentiment saved it. In fact, in 1947 Louisville mayor Charles P. Farnsley, a fighter for civil rights, took a gun and made a public announcement on his wishes to keep the monument where it was. In 2002 plans were initiated to make it part of a "Freedom Park", with trees transplanted from Civil War battlefields. On November 17, 2008, funding was approved for such a park, with the Kentucky state government using $1.6 million of federal funds and the university spending $403,000. Louisville sculptor Ed Hamilton has been selected to make a civil rights monument to counter the Confederate Monument; Hamilton has already made an Abraham Lincoln memorial statue in Louisville.
Read more about this topic: Confederate Monument In Louisville
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