Officials in Georgia say they’re seeking to create a replica of the Liberty Bell atop Stone Mountain near Atlanta to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
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This decision by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association is wholly inappropriate in that it is an intentional act of disrespect toward the stated goal of the Stone Mountain memorial from its inception as well as a possible violation of the law which established the Stone Mountain Memorial Association and charged it with promoting the mountain as a Confederate memorial.
“The erection of monuments to anyone other than Confederate heroes in Stone Mountain Park is in contradistinction to the objective for which the park exists and would make it a memorial to something different”, the group wrote in a statement on its website.
But Stone Mountain is best known for the “Confederate Mount Rushmore”, a 90-ft (27 m) relief sculpture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
But a Confederate heritage group is opposing the idea. The trio were leading figures of the rebel Southern states that fought in the Civil War of 1861-65.
The plan for the tower came from Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jim Galloway. “Adding King to it is just adding insult to injury”.
It appears a compromise between those who seek to honor history at Stone Mountain and those who react to controversy may soon take place.
In recent years, the mountain has been the subject of protests. The revival was sparked by the release of the racist film, Birth of a Nation. The family that owned the mountain gave the Klan exclusive rights to rally there, a right that the state revoked after purchasing the mountain in the 1950s.
The group, which advocates for Confederate symbols, compared placing anything other than a Confederate monument at the mountain to flying a Confederate flag atop the King Center in Atlanta. “Seems like nothing has changed since the ’60s”. Stone Mountain served as a meeting place for the KKK until gatherings were banned by the state of Georgia in 1958.
“Where else in the world would a country allow a celebration of insurrection?”
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“We are going to deal with our original premise that we should not be celebrating the Confederacy”, Rose said.
