The only African-American figure on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument is holding up a broken chain, looking up to white images of victory — symbolic, of course, of the freedom gained at the end of the Civil War, but not representative of many black soldiers who also fought for victory.

Now, thanks to some high-tech computer scanning and an award-winning artist from New York, this unnamed figure will be cloned and given new life along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.

“That image of him in shackles with the chain, it’s the lowest on the picture plane of the monument and it’s very reflective of the time period,” said Mindy Taylor Ross, an independent art consultant working with the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.

“On our Indianapolis monuments, the black man is only seen as a freed slave. In the 21st century, that is no longer a representation. We want to free him of that history.”

Monday night, computer scanners were on the monument — which itself is under construction — gathering high-tech images that will be used in a new sculpture of the figure.

“We will use a handheld unit and we will basically wave it in front of the image to collect a 3-D image,” said Jay Schaumberg of Online Resources, a Lebanon, Ind., company that does similar scans for a variety of clients seeking three-dimensional images. The project was to take about five hours.

The black man on the monument is about 10 feet high and 12 feet wide. When his new image takes its place on the northeast corner of Delaware and Washington, in front of the City County Building, he will no longer be wearing chains and shackles but will be standing upright, likely hoisting a flag in celebration and victory.

The project, which is estimated to take 15 months and be unveiled in 2011, is being commissioned by the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, which has an estimated $2 million budget for various public art projects like this. The money comes from private donors and fundraising, according to Ross.

New York conceptual artist Fred Wilson, who is of multiracial heritage himself, will be doing the new sculpture.

In fact, the project was his idea.

Wilson was in Indianapolis in the early 1990s for an exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art on how African-American art was presented at the museum. Similar, sometimes provocative, installations have gained Wilson much acclaim in the art world for helping to reshape the images of blacks in America.

On a return trip to Indianapolis, Ross said, Wilson noted that many Downtown memorials did not portray African-Americans, so he proposed creating a new one using the image on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

Earlier this year, Wilson lectured about the topic at the Madame Walker Theatre Center. He plans a second visit later this year to gather more community to guide his interpretation.

Ross said Wilson is “not about shock value or confrontation.” He said the artist is more likely to sensitively portray the perspectives of the black community in Indianapolis in a way that will celebrate them.

Brig. Gen. J. Stewart Goodwin, Indiana Air National Guard, executive director of the Indiana War Memorials Commission, said he is very excited about the project.

Although blacks from Indiana served in the Civil War as the 28th Regiment United States Colored Troops, their exclusion from the monument reflected their treatment during the war.

“Blacks could not serve until 1862, and Indiana was not as quick as some states to allow it,” Goodwin said. “Some left Indiana to fight with other states, and we’ve lost track of them. It’s kind of a sad piece of history.”