In 2002, the university announced an effort to add civil rights monuments in the vicinity of the Louisville location as part of a redevelopment called "Freedom Park".

The idea for the monument was first conceived in the basement of the Walnut Street Baptist Church in May 1887 during discussion concerning the decoration of graves at Cave Hill Cemetery.

Hepburn, sister of William Preston and sister-in-law of Albert Sidney Johnston, had previously served as President of the Ladies Aid Society of the Masonic Widows and Orphans Home.

[15] However the association continued to hold fund raisers over a year after the dedication to pay off the outstanding debt to the Muldoon Monument Company.

[23] In early August 1894, the Board of Public Works gave permission to the association to erect the monument on 3rd Street and began preparations to the site.

The Confederate Veteran magazine had earlier reported on Yandell's efforts in November 1893:[26] She has opened a studio in New York, but hopes for her greatest patronage from the South.

She is at present making studies for a magnificent Confederate monument, to be erected in one of our Southern States.Yandell's proposed design was a female allegorical figure described as martial 'Fame' rising 75 feet high on a base of white limestone, a pedestal of gray granite, and a column of red granite with five 15-foot high bronze candelabras surrounding the perimeter.

Yandell and Dodd, on the recommendation of an architecture committee, expressed willingness to replace the limestone base with granite while admitting the design adjustment would eliminate any profit.

Within the cornerstone, in a copper box, association members placed historical items including a mourning scarf, newspapers, poem and photographs, memoirs, Confederate currency, a Bible and a cigar of Jefferson Davis.

The occasion began at 3 P.M. with a parade which started on Broadway passing down 3rd street to the monument and included 200 ex-Confederate soldiers following the band from the Industrial School of Reform.

Basil W. Duke gave the oration, reportedly interrupted repeatedly by applause, in front of a large crowd gathered at the grounds of the School of Reform.

When that time comes all that makes life worth living will have been banished from the earth.Muldoon constructed a similar monument, using original sculptures of Ferdinand Freiherr von Miller, in 1895 at the State Capitol grounds in Raleigh, North Carolina.

[27] Research published in 1956 by Justus Bier, at the time Chair of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Louisville, suggests one or both of the two lateral figures of both monuments were modeled by von Miller from photographs of W. R. Dicks, a Raleigh, North Carolina Confederate veteran.

The eyes, beneath a broad felt hat, seemed fixed thoughtfully upon some far distant object, while every line and lineament of the face blend into an expression of unutterable sadness.

[51] In 2002, plans were conceived to integrate the monument and the Playhouse into the larger Freedom Park, with trees transplanted from Civil War battlefields.

[56] At present, the park contains series of black granite obelisks detailing the history of Louisville as well as panels to commemorate the lives of community civil rights leaders.

[57] At a press conference, on April 29, 2016, the Mayor of Louisville Greg Fischer and University President James R. Ramsey explained their intention to immediately remove the monument and place it into storage where it would receive cleaning.

[58] On May 2, 2016, a Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge signed a temporary restraining order filed by the Kentucky Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans along with several private individuals.

[59] The next day, the Jefferson County Attorney, representing the Mayor, asked for more time to prepare a defense for the intended monument removal.

[61] At a hearing on May 25, 2016, citing lack of evidence to issue an injunction, the Circuit Court Judge dissolved the temporary restraining order.

In her ruling, the judge agreed there was no title or other document establishing legal ownership of the monument, but that the plaintiff's arguments were not sufficient.

[63] These monuments, as well as other symbols of the Confederacy, are now viewed as a romanticism of the past, pride in 'Southern Heritage,' history to be acknowledged and lessons learned, reminders of slavery or indicative of present racist sentiment.

[65] On November 15, 2016, Mayor Fischer announced the monument would be moved to Brandenburg, located 44 miles west of Louisville along the Ohio River in Meade County, Kentucky.

Sarah Lindgren, the public art administrator for Louisville, said the time capsule, thought located within the monument, would be loaned to the Filson Historical Society for an exhibit if it was found.

[66] Dismantlement of the monument began November 19, 2016, and the time capsule was located two days later, and found to be in a poor state of preservation.

[74] East of the monument is a state historical marker where Gen John Hunt Morgan and his men crossed into Indiana in July 1863.

Figures commemorating Native American settlement of the region, the Underground Railroad and additional information panels regarding Morgan's crossing are located along the trail.

People largely from outside of the town (Motorcycle groups with lower rockers saying Virginia or Tennessee) came to defend the monument after a rumor of a protest regarding it started.

It is built of granite, constructed by the Muldoon Monument Company, and includes three bronze Confederate soldiers designed by the sculptor Ferdinand von Miller II of Munich, Germany.

[84] In an early mention, the monument committee in 1897 proposed to write Frederick Law Olmsted, the park architect, to draw up plans for the structure.