Georgia officials are planning to erect a monument to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the summit of Stone Mountain Park.
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Furthermore, the erection of a monument to anything other than the Confederate Cause being placed on top of Stone Mountain because of the objections of opponents of Georgia’s Confederate heritage would be akin to the state flying a Confederate battle flag atop the King Center in Atlanta against the wishes of King supporters. Gov. Nathan Deal (R) has approved the project and a formal announcement is expected before the holiday season, according to the newspaper.
“It is one of the best-known speeches in US history”, said Bill Stephens, the chief executive officer of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association.
(Martin Luther King Jr.) “Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.”
Neither the King monument nor the exhibit would use tax dollars.
Apparently that is too much to ask.
This photo shows a carving depicting confederates Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, Tuesday, June 23, 2015, in Stone Mountain, Ga.
In a way, black leaders feel the same way.
This decision by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association is wholly inappropriate in that it is an intentional act of disrespect toward the stated objective 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 plan has met with opposition from pro-Confederate groups.
They told Geary that no taxpayer money would be used.
“The Civil War has never ended for Southern sympathizers”.
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The plan for the tower came from Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jim Galloway. “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”. Neither officials with Stone Mountain Park nor the governor’s office could immediately be reached for comment. But for more than 100 years, the granite mountain has been a symbol of white supremacy. The revival, sparked by both the film “The Birth of a Nation” and the Leo Frank case, included a cross burning, which became part of KKK tradition. 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.
