Franklin, Tennessee unveiled “March to Freedom,” a bronze statue of a Black Union soldier from the Civil War, at a place of honor in front of the town’s courthouse and facing the town’s statue honoring Confederate soldiers, CNN reports.
The courthouse in Franklin, a town of 83,000 located about 20 miles north of Nashville, is the site where freed slaves enlisted in the Union Army after Franklin was liberated from the Confederates in 1862. The Union held the city throughout the war, and freed Blacks traveled to Franklin to join the fight.
The planning and fundraising efforts for “March to Freedom” were started by a number of local pastors after the white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Virginia that left one dead. Sculptor Joe Howard was commissioned for the work.