Over the past week, the country-wide clash regarding Confederate monuments has reached new heights.

But amid all the back-and-forth is a nugget of history connecting Cobb County to the national argument.

Decades ago the McNeel Marble Co. in Marietta grew into one of the nation's most prolific Confederate monument makers. They built more than 140 Confederate monuments, including dozens in Georgia.

That 140 includes the statue that was pulled down by protesters in Durham, North Carolina last week; eight individuals have been arrested in connection with that incident.

Experts agree that demand for Confederate monuments spiked twice: at the turn of the 20th century and about the time of the civil rights movement.

Read more about the history of the McNeel company and the reaction to the national uproar from a descendent of the company's founders on myAJC.com.

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Sun shines on a memorial for Nnakai Pratt on Friday. (Abbey Cutrer/AJC)

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Members of the conversion crew take a break as the main scoreboard is lowered to the floor to be worked on as the arena gets ready for the next concert at State Farm Arena, Thursday, October 2, 2025, in Atlanta. The crew was working on creating a stage for the Friday, Oct. 3 Maxwell concert. (Jason Getz/AJC)

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