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Andrew Young bucks civil rights groups, backs King monument on Stone Mountain

Sept. 23, 2015: Andrew Young talks to students at the Joseph E. Lowery Institute meeting at Clark Atlanta University. (Photo by Phil Skinner for the AJC)
Sept. 23, 2015: Andrew Young talks to students at the Joseph E. Lowery Institute meeting at Clark Atlanta University. (Photo by Phil Skinner for the AJC)
Ernie Suggs

Andrew Young says he supports a proposal to place a monument to Martin Luther King Jr. on Stone Mountain, and he's unconcerned that local civil rights groups have come out against the idea.

“My understanding of Dr. King’s nonviolence movement was to create a reconciliation of races and opinions,” Young said. "I think it is a wonderful symbolism to have a Freedom Bell on Stone Mountain that would honor Dr. King. It is not only a good idea. It is a necessary idea for this nation to pull together.”

Last Sunday, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association announced that it would begin plans to build a King monument atop Stone Mountain. It would most likely be a "Freedom Bell," a tower holding a replica of the Liberty Bell, based on a line in King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech: "Let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia."