Confederate Monument in Louisville The Confederate Monument in Louisville is a 70 - foot - tall monument adjacent to and surrounded by the University of Louisville Belknap Campus in Louisville , Kentucky , USA . Owned by the city of Louisville , the monument commemorates the sacrifice of Confederate veterans . As with many monuments to the Confederacy , some community activists , such as Louisville ' s Reverend Louis Coleman , have called for the removal of the monument from such a prominent location due to its association with the history of civil rights abuses against African - Americans , however both the city and university oppose such proposals . In 2002 , the University announced plans to add civil rights monuments around the statue as part of its redevelopment as " Freedom Park " , but funding was not secured until late 2008 . 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 . Description . It is located at the intersection of 2nd and 3rd Streets . It is the largest Civil War monument in Kentucky . It is built of granite , with the German Ferdinand von Miller - designed Confederate soldiers ( an artillerist , a cavalryman , and an infantryman ) made of bronze . The base had a diameter 48 feet when first established , but has been reduced . It was originally to be designed by Louisville sculptor Enid Yandell , but the fact that Yandell was a woman caused a scandal , and instead the monument was done by the Muldoon Monument Company . It is currently owned by the city of Louisville . The monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17 , 1997 , one of sixty - one different Civil War - related sites in Kentucky so honored on the same day . Four other monuments are in Louisville / Jefferson County . The 32nd Indiana Monument and the Union Monument in Louisville are in Cave Hill Cemetery . John B . Castleman Monument is on Cherokee Circle in the Highlands , a block from Bardstown Road . The other , Confederate Martyrs Monument in Jeffersontown , is in Jeffersontown City Cemetery in Jeffersontown , Kentucky .