Aaron Cheney demonstrates in 2008 outside the federal courthouse where former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge was attending a hearing on charges he obstructed justice and committed perjury for lying while under oath about decades-old Chicago police torture allegations. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Activists and attorneys in Chicago have proposed to create a monument to African-American young men who have been victims of torture by the city’s police department.

For decades, mostly young African-American men had complained that they had been shocked with electricity, beaten or kicked when in police custody to induce confessions.

The launch of the project by attorneys who represented torture victims and a man who confessed to murder after torture is scheduled for next Tuesday at Chicago’s Jane Addams Hull Association. Artists have been asked to submit proposals for the monument.  

In 2011, former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge received a four-and-a-half year federal prison sentence for lying about committing torture.

Members of the memorial proposal group, who were unnamed in a Chicago Tribune article said that the memorial’s goal was to “to honor the survivors of torture, their family members, and the African-American communities affected by the torture."