ON THE RECORD

Reactions to building a memorial to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at Stone Mountain

Gov. Nathan Deal: "I think we're seeing a discussion, a debate perhaps even, within the African-American community as to what their position on that is. And I think that's a healthy discussion."

“I thought it was a unique idea. But like any good idea, unless you have people to buy into it, what may be a good idea may not prove to be so good after all.

Civil rights veteran and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young: "My understanding of Dr. King's nonviolence movement was to create a reconciliation of races and opinions." "(King) said, 'Either we will learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we will perish together as fools.' 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."

Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta branch, NAACP: "The Civil War has never ended for Southern sympathizers. This just continues to reinforce white supremacy." "Adding King to it is just adding insult to injury. King was a man renowned for peace and nonviolence, and to dedicate something to him in a place with rogues, traitors and war-mongers is wrong."

Georgia Division, Sons of the Confederacy: "The erection of monuments to anyone other than Confederate heroes in Stone Mountain Park is in contradistinction to the purpose for which the park exists and would make it a memorial to something different. The park was never intended to be a memorial to multiple causes but solely to the Confederacy."