May 26, 2021
‘Confederate Mount Rushmore’ Will Stay In Georgia–With An Exhibit Explaining Racist Roots
Stone Mountain Park in Georgia has a Confederate equivalent to Mount Rushmore. However, there are going to be changes to make sure the state of Georgia doesn’t support racist traitors of America.
On Monday, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association adopted four new resolutions, including how the exhibit will handle the stone carving of three Confederate leaders—Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, 11 Alive, according to an NBC affiliate based in Atlanta.
It is one of Georgia’s biggest tourist destinations, but it is also high offensive; some would say the carving glorifies racism.
Critics may not be completely happy over the decision, but the Stone Mountain Park will add a museum to explain its racist roots for context and will relocate Confederate flags from a busy walking trail.
“Some people are going to say they’re not going far enough. Others are going to say they’re going too far,” Bill Stephens, the chief executive of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, which oversees the park, told the New York Times.
Related stories: CITY OF ASHEVILLE SET TO REMOVE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT OF FORMER SLAVE OWNER
“All I know is, it’s important to tell the whole story. There’s plenty to be said, that most people don’t know,” he added, mentioning the Ku Klux Klan’s involvement in its creation.
“We’re at a point where the state is teetering on going one way or the other politically,” Sheffield Hale, the president and CEO of the Atlanta History Center, said of a state that now has two Democratic senators. “The mountain is at the center of that.”
State law protects the monument and the flags from being completely removed.
Proponents of the monument say the colossal, 190 feet wide by 90 feet tall sculpture has been a staple since the early 1970s and that Black people and their allies should “embrace their history as Americans.”