Fate of the nation’s largest Confederate monument is at a crossroads
By: Dora Segall
Tags: Confederate Monuments, US Politics, Racial Justice, Atlanta, Stone Mountain

The fate of the nation’s largest Confederate monument is at a crossroads

The Stone Mountain Memorial Association voted Monday, Aug. 24 on whether to remove it from the surrounding state park.

Stone Mountain Memorial was completed in 1972. It has been the site of several protests this summer. Photograph: Dustin Chambers/Reuters.

On Saturday, Aug. 15, far-right and white supremacist militia groups demonstrated in the city of Stone Mountain, Georgia roughly 17 miles from downtown Atlanta. They were met by anti-fascist and far-left counter-protesters, who faced off with the demonstrators throughout the day. At the center of the controversy was Stone Mountain Memorial, which pictures Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee on horseback. At 90 x 190 x 11 feet, the mountainside bas-relief, located in state-owned, privately operated Stone Mountain Park, is the largest Confederate monument in the United States.

Drawing increased scrutiny over the past few years, Stone Mountain is the backdrop for laser shows each summer. It is also the birthplace of the modern Ku Klux Klan. This coming Monday, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association will vote on whether to remove the carving and a number of other Confederate markers around the park, according to Deana Levett, daughter of Association Board and NAACP member Gregory Bernard Levett Sr.

Stone Mountain — a historical overview

Stone Mountain has served a number of purposes over the past two centuries. In the 1800s, settlers developed quarries to mine the rich granite deposits there, displacing indigenous peoples who inhabited the area. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the granite mined from Stone Mountain has been used in many noteworthy structures worldwide, including the steps of the U.S. Capitol building, the Panama Canal, and Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel.

Stone Mountain Memorial is the largest Confederate memorial in the United States and largest bas-relief carving in the world. Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy.

In 1916, one year after the Ku Klux Klan’s notorious resurgence atop the mountain, Sam Venable, a KKK member who owned and operated the on-site quarry at the time, leased the land to the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). That year, 50 years after the end of the Civil War, the UDC began planning for a Confederate memorial that would eventually become the largest bas-relief carving in the world. They initially commissioned Gutzon Borglum, who later carved Mount Rushmore. Interrupted by changes in land ownership and two world wars, construction was drawn out over the next several decades. Borglum ultimately quit, and UDC’s deed for the land expired in 1928. Throughout this long and erratic project, the site maintained a strong link with the Klan, which continued to hold initiations there.

The Ku Klux Klan initiated 700 new members atop Stone Mountain in 1948. Photograph: The Associated Press.

In 1958, the state of Georgia established the Stone Mountain Memorial Association for the creation of a Confederate park which would “serve as a memorial to Southern history and a place of recreation for Georgia’s citizens and visitors,” according to Georgia’s Stone Mountain Master Plan 2005 Amendment Report. Under state ownership, work on the carving proceeded more rapidly. In 1964, Walker Kirkland Hancock took leadership of the sculpting efforts. Six years later, an unveiling and dedication ceremony was held, though the relief was not completed until 1972.

The most popular attraction in Georgia

“Seeing the generals on the side does sicken me, it makes me sick to my stomach. But at the same time, there’s this internal conflict.”

Since the 1970s, Stone Mountain Park has become Georgia’s most visited landmark, bringing in 4 million visitors each year. To attract visitors from out of town, it includes two on-site hotels managed by Marriott. The park is home to a lake and numerous hiking trails. It has also incorporated a number of other attractions since partnering with Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation in 1998, including a golf course and a scenic railroad.

The park is best known, however, for its elaborate laser shows, held each Saturday night during the summer, though this year it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show uses the memorial carving as its backdrop and “features lights, iconic music, lasers, epic fireworks, choreographed drone flights, and flame cannons,” according to the park’s website.

Stone Mountain Park hosts a weekly laser show with the memorial carving as a backdrop each summer. Photograph: stonemountainpark.com.

The park’s wide array of activities attracts people from all backgrounds. Local Black residents like Kamille Johnson Harless, who grew up in the city of Stone Mountain and briefly returned there in 2007, find that a boycott of the park does not come as easily as one might think

“Seeing the generals on the side [of the mountain] does sicken me, it makes me sick to my stomach,” Harless said. “But at the same time, there’s this internal conflict. Will I still go to do what I want to do with my family — to exercise, to climb the mountain, to go to the waterpark, to make sure my kids have something to do?”

She noted that the park has gone to great lengths to entice visitors and is especially appealing during the pandemic, when families are increasingly looking for opportunities for outdoor recreation.

A growing controversy

Since the memorial’s conception, the city of Stone Mountain’s population has become predominantly Black. For Georgia State Representative Shelley Hutchinson (D), this means that residents are surrounded by interpretations of Southern history that treat them as invisible.

“[There’s] a major road that passes in front of Stone Mountain … So you have minority children that pass by that monument every day and go to school,” Hutchinson said. “If you’re going to school passing by people who are glorified for wanting your relatives to be enslaved, then that does not create the type of environment in total that a child needs to thrive.”

According to state Senate Bill 77, “the memorial to the heroes of the Confederate States of America graven upon the face of Stone Mountain shall never be altered, removed, concealed, or obscured in any fashion.”

In June, Hutchinson introduced a bill in the Georgia House of Representatives that aimed to ban the display of any Confederate imagery or memorabilia on public property, including at Stone Mountain. The park, in addition to the carving itself, features numerous Confederate Flags, and surrounding streets bear names such as Robert E. Lee Boulevard.

“The best argument [opponents] can come up with is, ‘we’re erasing history,’” Hutchinson said. “I would suggest that if you really feel that way, then we should be putting more money in the education system because, clearly, our history teachers aren’t doing a great job.”

Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, reiterated the belief that Stone Mountain was inadequate as a historical marker. “Nothing at Stone Mountain happened during the Civil War,” he said. “What it does have a relationship with is the Ku Klux Klan.”

Rose noted that Georgia has taken measures to ensure Stone Mountain’s legal protection, referring to a 2001 preservation law which Rep. Hutchinson has made efforts to repeal.

According to state Senate Bill 77, “the memorial to the heroes of the Confederate States of America graven upon the face of Stone Mountain shall never be altered, removed, concealed, or obscured in any fashion.”