Restored Shaw 54th Regiment Black Soldiers Memorial In Boston To Be Unveiled Friday

BOSTON (CBS/AP) – You can finally get a look at a newly restored monument honoring a famed Civil War unit of Black soldiers in Boston this weekend.

There will be a ceremonial unveiling Friday of the bronze relief at the center the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial on Boston Common across from the State House.

The $3 million restoration project began last summer when the sculpture was removed and taken to a studio in Woburn. It was returned to a repaired marble and stone foundation in March.

The fence and protective covering around the memorial will come down Friday, 158 years to the day Shaw and his men marched down Beacon Street past the State House on May 28, 1863, as seen in the memorial.

Long considered one of the nation's greatest sculptures, the Shaw Memorial captures the stirring call to arms answered by Black soldiers who served in the unit, which was popularized in the 1989 Oscar-winning movie "Glory."

American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens spent 14 years creating the monument, unveiling it to fanfare in 1897.

But the work is also among those that has faced scrutiny amid last year's national reckoning on racism sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

The sculpture depicts Shaw, the unit's white commanding officer, riding on horseback while his Black soldiers walk in the background, a dynamic that some suggest is problematic.

A formal re-dedication ceremony will be held in the fall. You can read more about the restoration here.

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)