Making a reproduction of an early 20th-century public sculpture seems like a project that could incite few people to anger — unless, of course, what is being appropriated and reworked is a contentious portrayal of a freed slave, barely clothed, still weighed down by his shackles. That’s what sculptor Fred Wilson proposed for a newly commissioned piece along Indianapolis’s Cultural Trail, one of eight artworks that is slated to be unveiled on September 22, 2011, the anniversary of Lincolns signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Now Wilson’s plan to rework the depiction of the freed slave from the city’s 1902 Soldiers and Sailors Monument is facing fierce dissent from Indy residents.

Wilson's planned sculpture, titled "E Pluribus Unum," presents an altered recreation of the 1902 freed slave, this time with his chains removed and a flag emblazoned with symbols evoking the African diaspora in his hand. After a letter from enraged high school history teacher Leroy Robinson was printed in the Indianapolis Recorder, work on the sculpture was halted pending a more organized community discussion.

Robinson’s letter compared Wilson’s proposed sculpture to an offensive and kitsch "black lawn jockey," chastising the artist for presenting an image of a freed slave in such a "submissive position," one that is far from a "position of empowerment." The artist, meanwhile, who was slated to receive $325,000 for the work, told the Indy Star: "I was blindsided by this, and I've learned a lot from the project, too. I was surprised by it. Saddened."

Disagreements about the work came to a head at a community talk on Tuesday night, which saw impassioned debate among the 350 attendees who congregated in the Madame Walker Theater. "Making art is not a collaborative process," Wilson told the crowd. "It's been birthed at this point." To which someone in the crowd replied, "It can be aborted."