Confederate Imagery At Stone Mountain Park To Change

STONE MOUNTAIN, GA — Stone Mountain Memorial Association board members approved a series of resolutions Monday to change some of the symbols and imagery — and acknowledge the true history — of the world's largest Confederate monument.

Officials said during the meeting that the changes are partially driven by financial concerns, which SMMA CEO Bill Stephens admitted to previously as well, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Associated Press.

“Economically, we can’t stay the way we are,” he said. “Change is inevitable. We can either take charge of it or we can be defined by it.”

The resolutions included the following:

• Approval for a new on-site exhibit that officials said would "tell the truth" about the mountain carving of Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.
• Publicly acknowledging that the park was once a gathering spot for the Ku Klux Klan.
• Relocate the Confederate flag plaza from the mountain's walk-up trail to Valor Park.
• Change the Stone Mountain Memorial Association's logo, which includes a rendering of the carving.

Stephens called the changes the park's "most dramatic move forward" since it opened in the 1960s, according to the AJC. However, some activists say it's still not enough.

The approved changes did not include renaming streets in the park named after Confederate leaders, or altering or removing the carving — something activists wanted from the start. But Georgia law gives special protections for Stone Mountain and charges the SMMA by law with "proper development, management, preservation and protection of Stone Mountain as a Confederate Memorial and public recreation area," according to the SMMA website.

“We are not going to be able to please everyone,” Stephens said. “Some are going to say that we went too far, some are going to say we didn’t go far enough. I think the answer is just to tell the truth.”

Stephens previously mentioned other initiatives, which included renaming the park's Confederate Hall building, but those were not addressed at Monday's meeting. Those ideas aren't being thrown out, though, the AJC reported.

The chair and vice chair of the SMMA will now appoint seven members to an advisory committee that will shape the new "truth-telling" exhibit contextualizing the carving.

Read more from the AJC here.

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