The Injustice of Stone Mountain

The Injustice of Stone Mountain

The Fight to remove the Confederate Figures.

After the protest of the murder of George Floyd, many of the Conferate flag and other confederate symbols. The enormous monument at the center of the park - Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson carved into stone as a Confederate equivalent to Mount Rushmore - is not going anywhere (4). The website for Stone Mountain has no images of the Confederates or the main attraction, the 90 foot tall carvings of the Confederate Generals. They representeda massive symbol of hate and slavery. The fight to remove the monument has become very difficult because of the size and cost to destroy it. The pro Confederate history people believe the monument is a symbol of their history and must be protected. On May 24, the board of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association voted to move Confederate flags away from the base of the huge granite outcropping, located east of Atlanta (1). The Coalition has also homed in on language requiring that Stone Mountain Park be maintained as an “appropriate” and “suitable” monument to the confederacy (2). House Bills 237 and 238, filed by Hutchinson earlier this week, would not only remove the protections for Confederate monuments in current Georgia law but expressly prohibit tributes that are “related to the Confederate States of America, slave owners or persons advocating for slavery on public property (3).

Gutzon Borglum 1916- 1925, Augustus Luckman 1925-1928, Walker Kirkland Hancock in 1963-1972

1. Davis, Stephen. 2021. “Stone Mountain Standoff.” America’s Civil War 34 (4): 8. https://search-ebscohost-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=151324430&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

2. Estep, Tyler. 2021. "Stone Mountain Park Official: Confederate Flags Protected by Law." TCA Regional News, Jan 15. https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/stone-mountain-park-official-confederate-flags/docview/2478072507/se-2?accountid=9840.

3. Estep, T. (2021, Feb 03). New bills target stone mountain, confederate monuments across georgia. TCA Regional News Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/new-bills-target-stone-mountain-confederate/docview/2485527533/se-2?accountid=9840

4. Timothy Pratt, and Rick Rojas. “Giant Confederate Monument Will Remain at Revamped Stone Mountain.” New York Times (Online). New York: New York Times Company, 2021.

Stone Mountain Park Opens: April 14, 1965 (monument not completed)
Monument Dedication: May 9, 1970 (Figures on the sculpture are complete, official commemoration)
Construction Completed: 1972

Art Sotelo

English

Base-Relief Sculpture

Hist 402A Fall 2021

Stone Mountain, Georgia