Group threatens lawsuit over removal of Confederate flags from Stone Mountain Park trail
Day of Action to change Stone Mountain Park
Organizers are continuing their fight for change at Stone Mountain Park. The Atlanta NAACP President Richard Rose, along with dozens of members of the Stone Mountain Action Coalition celebrated the third annual Day of Action by focusing on the controversial park.
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. - An organization that recognizes Confederate soldiers say it plans to sue the popular Stone Mountain Park over changes to the park that the group claims are in violation of state law.
In a release, Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans says the park's decision to move four Confederate flags that were placed near the start of the park's trail goes against Georgia's Monument Protection Act.
The flags were removed before Memorial Day weekend and placed in the park's Valor Park, a smaller area closer to the base of the monument which also features a statue of a Confederate soldier and a bench. The Stone Mountain Memorial Association, the state authorities that oversee the park, made the decision over two years ago but had delayed the move while they changed the management partner for the park's attractions.
But moving the flags from the Flag Terrace Memorial to the Valor Park was a downgrade, the Sons of Confederate Veterans argued, saying that state law requires moments be related "to a site of similar prominence, honor, visibility, and access."
The group also criticized the Stone Mountain Memorial Association for selecting Tennessee-based Warner Museums to design new history exhibits for the park's memorial hall. The group has previously worked on projects examining the South's experience during the civil rights movement, such as the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church where four Black girls were killed in a 1963 bombing.
Atlanta met with friction over Confederate street names
An organization that represents families of confederate soldiers warns the city better get ready to go to court. The issue is that city council has signaled it wants to remove every street name that is tied to the confederacy. Some have already been taken down, but the Sons of Confederate Veterans vows no more.
"The exhibit galleries will explore the complete and complex history of Stone Mountain, and I would point out this is only the beginning of a longer process of getting input from all parties and working with the community to put together a project the state of Georgia can be proud of," Stone Mountain Memorial Association CEO Bill Stephens said in a statement in 2022
In response, the Sons of Confederate Veterans called the proposed exhibits "woke," saying they "purposely denigrate the primary mandate of the Memorial Park as a memorial to the Confederacy."
The group says if the park does not change the alleged code violations, it will sue to get them restored.
The 3,200-acre park about 15 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta attracts large numbers of tourists and other visitors interested in hiking to the top of the mountain, walking the grounds or seeing a light show. In recent years, the park has tried to address criticism of the park’s Confederate legacy and its connection to the Ku Klux Klan and shore up its finances.
Critics have called on the board to remove the colossal sculpture of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson from the mountain’s northern face. Completed in 1972, it measures 190 feet across and 90 feet (27 meters) tall. It is the largest Confederate monument ever crafted and has special protection enshrined in Georgia law.
While the park has not done anything with the carving, in recent years it changed its logo to one that does not feature the stone monument.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.