Mountain of freedom
All men are created equal. All ideas are not.
That distinction should not leave the minds of those who will, in coming days, debate and decide whether to erect a monument to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. atop Stone Mountain.
Which means that Gov. Nathan Deal’s instinct for caution may, in the end, well serve Georgia and the world. Last week, Deal, after giving an initial go-ahead, tapped the brakes on the notion by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association to erect a bell tower honoring King.
Deal, and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, are correct in asserting that wider input’s needed around this idea to memorialize King’s “Let Freedom Ring” quote atop the granite mound that has loomed as a symbol of both Confederate rebellion against the United States and opposition to the ideal of equality for all.
No one was surprised that the Sons of Confederate Veterans quickly and reflexively fell into formation against the King memorial idea. Yet, park and state leaders seemed genuinely surprised when the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference likewise opposed the plan – admittedly for thoroughly different reasons.
Adding more complexity, King confidant Andrew Young and other African-American leaders have blessed the concept.
All of which makes for a uniquely Southern – and American – conundrum swirling around heartfelt, clashing beliefs.
Perhaps the largest truth at Stone Mountain Park is found on the carved stone guarding the main entrance. It reads: “The citizens of Georgia welcome you to their park.”
A morning walk last week around the lush grounds proves that, where athletic shoes meet the path, freedom already rings from Stone Mountain. People of different races and nationalities tramped along walking trails. A group of Asian tourists discussed in their own language the granite carving of the rebels three. Workers conversed in Spanish as they installed holiday decorations around arcades.
And on the wide, smooth-yet-wavy stone that leads up to the mountaintop, a light — and diverse — procession of hikers made the mile-long trek to the summit. Near the start, they trooped past the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s flag terrace. No heads turned toward the drooping banners of rebellion on this windless day.
Whites, blacks, and other hues went about their activities unhindered, which is just how MLK would have wanted it, we believe. That such is the norm today renders impotent the history of Stone Mountain as powerfully as could any monument to King established on this great rock.
Not that history should be forgotten, rewritten, minimized, exaggerated or hammered away. The South suffered terrible losses from its misbegotten attempt to secede. The human suffering endured by those on the wrong side of history deserves continuing recognition.
For that reason and others, the chiseled monument to the three rebs and what they represented might best remain as it is. Their legacy is already largely ignored in handouts offered upon entrance to the park last week. This, even as stone kiosks representing secessionist states give a one-sided view of the Northern “invasion” and omit the reasons why that bloody incursion occurred in the first place.
As both the birthplace of the modern Ku Klux Klan and a state-mandated monument to the Confederacy, Stone Mountain can perhaps best teach its lessons if it remains just what it now is – an entertainment attraction placed in the diminishing shadow of a legacy that is much like a prehistoric insect entombed in amber. It is something that people now and forevermore can see for what it is – a monument to an unjust past that fades a bit more with each sunset. That is, if they take time from jogging to even consider any of that.
Whether we erect a tribute to MLK or not, the ideas that Stone Mountain idealizes are long-dead and gone. Those few who rally in attempts to resurrect, mischaracterize or otherwise honor all of that will only become more obsolete to our society. They can certainly continue to futilely attempt to romanticize a bygone part of Georgia’s past for which Stone Mountain is a tombstone. That is their right.
While they fume, the joggers, hikers and tourists scurrying about Stone Mountain already embody the ringing freedom King fought and died for.
About the Author
Andre Jackson is editorial editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in April 2009. He oversees the newspaper’s thought leadership expressed via its opinion pages.
