Leaders of nation’s largest Confederate memorial propose changes to ‘tell the truth’
Changes could be coming to the nation’s largest monument honoring Confederate leaders.
Stone Mountain Park, located just outside Atlanta, is among the state’s most-visited attractions. The 158-foot carving on the side of the mountain depicts Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
However, park leaders say its controversial history — including ties to the Ku Klux Klan — and the COVID-19 pandemic have been bad for business.
The Stone Mountain Memorial Association, which manages the state-owned park, proposed several changes Monday that it hopes will help turn things around, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Those plans include consolidating monuments to a designated area, relocating several of the Confederate flags in the park and creating a museum exhibit that “tell(s) the truth about the history” of the massive mountainside memorial.
“I think you’re going to find that we’re not going to make anybody happy,” Stone Mountain Park CEO Bill Stephens told WSB-TV. “Unless we do something about the Confederacy issue, they’re not even going to bid on the project. We’ve lost many opportunities and sponsorships.”
Stephens said the park lost 56% of its revenue from 2019 to 2020, according to the news station.
Social justice protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in summer 2020 prompted renewed calls for the removal of Confederate monuments across the country, citing their symbolism to the legacy of white supremacy. The Second Ku Klux Klan was founded atop Stone Mountain in November 1915, when members “burned a cross and swore their loyalty to the Klan, ushering in a new era of white nationalist terrorism,” according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Among other changes proposed Monday were renaming the park’s Confederate Hall to “Heritage Hall,” debuting a new logo without the three Confederate leaders and renaming some streets after other prominent people in Georgia’s history, WABE reported.
The proposed changes come nearly a week after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Pastor Abraham Mosely to lead the SMMA, making him the board’s first Black chairman, the Associated Press reported.
Lecia Brooks, chief of staff for the Southern Poverty Law Center, called the changes “a good first step.”
“Like any public space, Stone Mountain Park — which happens to be located in a majority Black neighborhood — should be welcoming to all,” Brooks said in a statement. “Preserving Confederate heritage can no longer be used as an excuse to salvage a revisionist history that excludes and minimizes the harms done to those they fought to enslave.”
“The only way forward is to stop using the park to romanticize this shrine to white supremacy,” she continued.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans are among those pushing back against the changes, noting the state’s laws protecting Confederate monuments.
“Stone Mountain Park by law is a memorial to the Confederacy,” Martin O’Toole with Sons of Confederate Veterans told WSB-TV.
Stone Mountain Memorial Association board members are expected to vote on the proposals next month.
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