Monuments to the Ten Commandments and Martin Luther King Jr. would be placed on the state Capitol grounds under legislation approved in the state House on Monday.
House Bill 702, by Rep. Greg Morris, R-Vidalia, would call for a monument that features the Ten Commandments, and portions of the Declaration of Independence and Georgia Constitution to be paid for by private funds. The bill passed 138-37 and goes to the Senate.
House Bill 1080, by Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, would likewise allow for a privately funded monument to King, the legendary civil rights leader from Atlanta. It passed 173-3.
Morris said he was moved to introduce the bill after Gov. Nathan Deal had a statute to Tom Watson, a former U.S. senator and segregationist, from in front of the Capitol. Deal said the move was a safety issue as renovations are done to the western steps.
Rep. Roger Bruce, D-Atlanta, asked Morris if people of other faiths would be free to have a monument on Capitol grounds. Morris said it would be possible.
“If the Legislature were compromised of enough people who had the view that the Declaration of the Independence, the Constitution, the Georgia Constitution had some other basis for the freedoms we enjoy today other than the Judeo-Christian values they believed and they reflected in the documents that give us our economic, political and religious freedoms, I suppose they would be free to do so.”
On the MLK bill, Rep. Tommy Benton, R-Jefferson noted that every other monument on Capitol grounds was to a Georgian who held elected office and said King was never an elected official.
Smyre, however, said “no is one more deserving than Dr. King. He was a giant of a man, he was a great Georgian. We have a national holiday in this country in his honor. And he is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.”
House Majority Leader Larry O'Neal, R-Bonaire, said the statue would become a beacon of hope.
“Not only does it honor a truly great, great, great Georgian in his own hometown and capital city, it will become a shrine of achievement, a shining beacon for many people from around the world to come and enjoy,” O’Neal.
Voting no were Benton and Reps. Charles Gregory, R-Kennesaw, and Sam Moore, R-Macedonia.
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