Context

A symbol of the polarized debate around labor activism and policing, this beleaguered monument has suffered more physical abuse than any other work of public art in Chicago. The monument was dedicated in 1889 at the site of the Haymarket bombing in 1886, and paid for by private citizens. The memorial to the seven officers who died as a result of violence between striking workers and police, has been bombed twice and struck by a streetcar in a freak accident. Moved four times in its history, it is now sheltered in the courtyard of the Police Training Center on West Jackson Blvd. A new Haymarket monument erected at the site of the former Haymarket Square was commissioned in 2004 by the City of Chicago, The Illinois Federation of Labor History, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police and the Chicago Department of Transportation.