INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — The monument memorializing Confederate prisoners of war is being removed from Garfield Park.
Crews began dismantling the monument for removal Monday morning.
The monument was originally at Greenlawn Cemetery, commissioned in 1912. It was a grave marker for Confederate soldiers who died while at Camp Morton — a Union prison in Indianapolis.
It was moved to the park in 1928 after public officials — who were active in the KKK — wanted to make the monument more visible.
"Whatever original purpose this grave marker might once have had, for far too long it has served as nothing more than a painful reminder of our state’s horrific embrace of the Ku Klux Klan a century ago," said Mayor Joe Hosett about his decision to have it removed.
The city approved a measure in 2017 to remove the monument once funding was secured. The city expects the removal to cost between $50,000 and $100,000.