The Atlanta chapter of the NAACP is calling for the removal of the giant carving that depicts three leaders of the Confederate States of America on Stone Mountain. But the prospects of that happening are steeper than the monument’s sheer face.
Suffice to say, such an erasure would take more than an epicly proportioned sandblaster. It would also require a highly unlikely change of course by state leaders — since the monument is protected in state law — as well as an uncomfortable debate about the selective editing of history.
The chapter’s leader, Richard Rose, told Channel 2 Action News that he knows it’s a losing fight. But he wants a debate about ending what he calls the “glorification of slavery and white supremacy.” He said he would start by removing Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from the towering monument to the Confederate war dead.
“Those guys need to go. They can be sandblasted off, or somebody could carefully remove a slab of that and auction it off to the highest bidder,” Rose told the station.
The discussion comes as Georgia wrestles with its Confederate legacy after the shooting deaths of nine black worshippers in Charleston, S.C., by a man who police say wanted to start a race war. Many Democrats have rallied behind a call to ban the state from celebrating Confederate Memorial Day, but some black leaders said the Stone Mountain pitch goes too far.
State Rep. Dar'shun Kendrick, D-Atlanta, tweeted that critics should "focus on something else. Folks need jobs." And U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, whose east Atlanta district includes the mountain, told V-103 that "we have to all keep it in perspective."
“I’m not so much affected by Stone Mountain Park as I am by the flag flying at an official government building like a state capitol or even the federal Capitol, a position, the seat of government,” Johnson said. “I view Stone Mountain as more of a museum-type archaeological place of remembrance for those who want to remember back then.”
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