Georgia seeks to dismiss Confederate group’s Stone Mountain lawsuits

The park’s history has long been a point of contention. Stone Mountain didn’t play a role in the Civil War, but it is home to the largest Confederate monument in the country. It features a massive carving of Confederate President Jefferson Davis as well as Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

The Stone Mountain Memorial Association, the state authority that oversees the park, took steps to de-emphasize the glorification of the Confederacy in the wake of racial justice protests prompted by the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the removal of Confederate statues across the nation. In 2022, the park selected Warner Museums, a firm that has designed several civil rights-related exhibits, to create a display presenting the full story of the park’s history and the Civil War.

“It’s important that people come to understand how it came to be and how they can find common ground even though the history is complicated,” Bill Stephens, CEO of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, said in an interview this week with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Construction for the exhibit is underway. Stephens said it’s expected to open by the end of the year.

But following the recent changes, the Sons of Confederate Veterans took aim at the relocation of the flags in May, filing a lawsuit against the state and another one against Stephens and association chairman Abraham Mosley. The group contends the relocation of the flags away from a walking trial violated state law.

The group also argued in a separate July lawsuit that the association broke a Georgia law requiring the state maintain the park as an “appropriate and suitable memorial for the Confederacy” by planning the proposed exhibit.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans are funding their legal action through member donations, according to a spokesman for the group.

The spokesman said that if the association wants to move forward with the exhibit, the Legislature needs to change the law.

Stephens defended the association’s plans.

“We believe we’re on the right side of law and the right side of history, and that we’re doing the right thing for Georgia,” he said.

As legal battles over Stone Mountain play out in court, the Trump administration is taking steps to restore Confederate monuments at the national level. Earlier this year President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the restoration of public monuments that were toppled during 2020 racial justice protests.

In line with that executive order, the National Park Service announced Monday it would reinstall a statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike in Washington, D.C. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that a Confederate statue would be restored to Arlington National Cemetery.