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The actual state of GA bought Stone Mountain and maintained it for many years.
Why can't the state do the same for all of the unsung heroism of its black citizens? Why do only black people have to help fund it?
And FWIW, Stone Mountain is indeed a monument to the Confederacy and white supremacy. The AHM, is a great organization and they do acknowledge the non-white Confederate suffering in the state of GA and the south in general already. But they are not a prominent symbol of metro Atlanta like Stone Mountain is.
There is no public monument to the suffering of black Georgians before, during, or immediately following the Civil War, nor during the Jim Crow period.
It is great that Civil Rights is represented, but the Civil Rights movement actually began way before 1950 and you rarely hear about the activities of those trail blazers. GA, after MS had the most lynchings in the USA. IMO, they really should devote some public money to recognizing lynching victims and their families - all of which were not black either. The modern Civil Rights Movement has is base in the "anti-lynching movement" of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Their activities are very much worth recognition and IMO should be installed near or in the parks/monuments where Confederates are placed.
But the gist of my comment to you prior was the fact that white Confederates' suffering is not more important than black Georgians and formerly enslaved persons suffering. Confederates have their memorials, and I'm okay with that due to me being heavily interested and involved in research pertaining to history, especially of the antebellum south at the moment but IMO, these people should not be revered as heroes or anyone worth any sort of honor. I am a descendant of both slaves and free persons of color and to be a decent researcher into the lives of my ancestors, I have had to delve deeply into various plantation records and court cases that most people don't really pay attention to. I recently found my 4th great grandfather listed in the will of his owner. The owner's son died in the war and was a Confederate and the son has lots of things written about him in that local community and his name is on a memorial in the area because of his death and suffering. His slaves suffered too for their entire lives and to me it is both interesting and angering that people can so easily praise a Confederate and not even look to see what the lives of his slaves were like before or after the war. I am forced to know a lot about these sons and daughters of the Confederacy due to the fact that they are the key to me finding out about my own ancestors. So when people speak of them, I see another side due to the records they left. And I know that these people, all of the people in the past were citizens of a particular time and place, but that is not excuse to continue to praise them when we know better in the present time and place.
If you aren't for blasting the images off the mountain, then the part you bolded in red doesn't apply to you, just those that think that doing so will change anything.
Interesting that you see Stone Mountain park as a memorial to the confederacy. I see it as a geological wonder first and foremost, then as an aside, there is a confederate memorial/museum as part of it. It's always been the way I have viewed it as a white southern male. I don't go there to celebrate, in fact it seems rather odd that so much attention to the confederacy was ever established there in the first place. But it was and is and no need to go and re-do it at this point. What would it accomplish? Nothing except divide people even worse than before.
I hate that this racial ripping apart has consumed the psyche of our country so much in the last few years. In my 54 years I have seen so much change for the good in racial mindsets. Not saying at all that we have completely "overcome" as a country... of course there is still much work to do. But things have gone backwards as of late and I'm scratching my head over it all. I don't buy into some of the conspiracy theories out there, but I do wonder why national media outlets seem to be so intent on inflaming this cultural war.
Actually, I see Stone Mountain as a symbol of white supremacy, moreso than a monument to confederates.
It is an interesting geological site, but that interest for me was hijacked when racist people, in an attempt to broadcast their white supremacist ideology placed those figures on the front of the mountain.
And to the poster who mentioned that "black people go there" I am well aware of that, the friend who wanted me to go to the park and who I went with was black and she spoke multiple times about how "it doesn't mean that anymore." To both myself and to my husband who never wanted to go either. People reason away things they don't want to think about, or just flat out ignore the carving on the mountain and choose instead to focus on the hotel or nature or fishing, etc. And that is their perogative, but as stated, I know too much about this history and especially the effect the system of white supremacy has on black people to this day. It is easy for you to ignore because it doesn't affect and hasn't affected you like it has my family in particular.
And nothing has gone backwards as of late. You just never paid attention to these topics prior to them being pushed more and more by the media. They have always been around. Hopefully, being a southerner, you know that there has been debate about both Stone Mountain and the confederate flag for decades, since these things came into existence, these are not new ideas.
The whole re-writing of history or that "things are worse" in regards to race relations comments, I'm sorry but they are extremely laughable to me. They show to me that people who believe those things have been actively ignoring a percentage of Americans for many years. And for me that is telling in light of this conversation being that as soon as it is mentioned that blacks suffered, there was a countering about the suffering of whites in the south as if their suffering was anyway equal to black. The whole black inferiority thing that lasted for nearly 100 years (and IMO which is still prevalent today as is evidenced by these sorts of conversations) and which denied blacks protection of the law and educational opportunities and opportunities for wealth accumulation are all things that whites ignored and never paid attention to even though blacks have been shouting and trying to get attention to them forever. You all just focus on MLK. Which even though he is admirable, he is not the culmination of the black experience in the south or America at large. People were working before him and after him to curtail the white supremacist ideology and government in this country and still are and were in the 1970s (which is how redlining was made illegal), the 1980s, the 1990s (president Clinton actually "apologized" for lynching) and the early 2000s. Nothing has gotten worse it is just those struggles are more in your face now than they were previously and it is making you pay attention.
I have also encountered similar conversational topics just speaking of black history in this country. No one cares about anything outside of Civil Rights and the old adage of "ignorance is bliss" is very true when it comes to these sorts of historical things. On Stone Mountain and other places like it, I am not ignorant about it and due to that I cannot ignore the fact that those carvings were put there to intimidate civil rights workers and to highlight the white supremacist ideology of many Georgia residents. I cannot in good conscience have a good time in nature with that literally looming over me. Other people can, but as said, I do a lot of research and have since I was a teen and this sort of thing just stays with me and I just cannot overlook it to catch fish or go on a hike. I can go other places to do those things.
I have a lot of conflicting ideas about this stuff.
* I believe everyone should have the right to display the battle flag, and everyone should have the right to criticize them for it.
* I believe museums and historical monuments are appropriate places for the battle flag to be displayed. I think it's a bit odd that the battle flag was removed from Fort Sumter, of all places.
* I believe there's a distinction between historical monuments and idolatry, but the distinction is sometimes hard to identify and agree upon. I think we should remember our history and our heritage; I don't think we should celebrate and worship traitors who took up arms against their country in order to preserve chattel slavery. I don't think there's any real question that Stone Mountain, from its very conception, strays more than a little ways into idolatry territory.
Stone Mountain may be required to serve as a Confederate memorial, which makes the subtraction of history difficult. But state law doesn’t rule out the addition of history. To respect the dead is well and good. It is not always wise to give them the last word.
Thought that was an interesting article. Especially how Atlanta Blacks back then viewed the Cyclorama much as many view Stone Mountain, despite the fact that it depicted a Northern victory and was commissioned by one of Sherman general's, Logan, to promote his presidential campaign.
Actually, I see Stone Mountain as a symbol of white supremacy, moreso than a monument to confederates.
It is an interesting geological site, but that interest for me was hijacked when racist people, in an attempt to broadcast their white supremacist ideology placed those figures on the front of the mountain.
And to the poster who mentioned that "black people go there" I am well aware of that, the friend who wanted me to go to the park and who I went with was black and she spoke multiple times about how "it doesn't mean that anymore." To both myself and to my husband who never wanted to go either. People reason away things they don't want to think about, or just flat out ignore the carving on the mountain and choose instead to focus on the hotel or nature or fishing, etc. And that is their perogative, but as stated, I know too much about this history and especially the effect the system of white supremacy has on black people to this day. It is easy for you to ignore because it doesn't affect and hasn't affected you like it has my family in particular.
And nothing has gone backwards as of late. You just never paid attention to these topics prior to them being pushed more and more by the media. They have always been around. Hopefully, being a southerner, you know that there has been debate about both Stone Mountain and the confederate flag for decades, since these things came into existence, these are not new ideas.
The whole re-writing of history or that "things are worse" in regards to race relations comments, I'm sorry but they are extremely laughable to me. They show to me that people who believe those things have been actively ignoring a percentage of Americans for many years. And for me that is telling in light of this conversation being that as soon as it is mentioned that blacks suffered, there was a countering about the suffering of whites in the south as if their suffering was anyway equal to black. The whole black inferiority thing that lasted for nearly 100 years (and IMO which is still prevalent today as is evidenced by these sorts of conversations) and which denied blacks protection of the law and educational opportunities and opportunities for wealth accumulation are all things that whites ignored and never paid attention to even though blacks have been shouting and trying to get attention to them forever. You all just focus on MLK. Which even though he is admirable, he is not the culmination of the black experience in the south or America at large. People were working before him and after him to curtail the white supremacist ideology and government in this country and still are and were in the 1970s (which is how redlining was made illegal), the 1980s, the 1990s (president Clinton actually "apologized" for lynching) and the early 2000s. Nothing has gotten worse it is just those struggles are more in your face now than they were previously and it is making you pay attention.
I have also encountered similar conversational topics just speaking of black history in this country. No one cares about anything outside of Civil Rights and the old adage of "ignorance is bliss" is very true when it comes to these sorts of historical things. On Stone Mountain and other places like it, I am not ignorant about it and due to that I cannot ignore the fact that those carvings were put there to intimidate civil rights workers and to highlight the white supremacist ideology of many Georgia residents. I cannot in good conscience have a good time in nature with that literally looming over me. Other people can, but as said, I do a lot of research and have since I was a teen and this sort of thing just stays with me and I just cannot overlook it to catch fish or go on a hike. I can go other places to do those things.
Tell it!
And yes, go to Arabia Mountain (or Panola Mountain) instead--they are jewels.
Location: Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, and Raleigh
2,580 posts, read 2,487,902 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bu2
Thought that was an interesting article. Especially how Atlanta Blacks back then viewed the Cyclorama much as many view Stone Mountain, despite the fact that it depicted a Northern victory and was commissioned by one of Sherman general's, Logan, to promote his presidential campaign.
That's because regardless of whom is the author, people find it appalling. Many black Americans don't care who did what because if it is offensive then it is offensive.
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