FILE – A Stone Mountain carving in honor of Confederate Generals is shown in Stone Mountain, Georgia on Monday, May 24, 2021. On Monday, August 23, 2021, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association board approved a new logo for the park near Atlanta that does not show the side of the mountain with the carving. The board approved other changes in May but has not promised any changes to the carvings or streets named after Confederate generals. (AP Photo / Ron Harris, File)
The board that oversees a park near Atlanta voted on Monday for a new logo that excludes the giant Confederate mountain carvings in the park.
Another change made by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association is to address criticism of the park’s Confederate heritage and shore up its finances.
The board voted in May to move the Confederate flags off a busy hiking trail up the mountain and create a museum exhibit recognizing the place’s connection to the Ku Klux Klan.
The previous logo featured an image of the famous carving of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. The new logo includes an image of a lake in the park and a side of the mountain where the carving is not visible.
Critics asked the board to remove the colossal sculpture from the north face of the mountain. It was completed in 1972 and measures 58 meters in diameter and 27 meters high. It is the largest Confederate monument ever built and enjoys special protection under Georgian law.
The changes come amid a national computation of the race that saw dozens of Confederate monuments collapse last year.
Work on the Stone Mountain sculpture was suspended until the state bought the mountain for a park in 1958. Completion of the monument became even more urgent amid opposition from Georgia and other southern states to the civil rights movement and efforts to end segregation.
Today, the park 25 kilometers northeast of downtown Atlanta markets itself more as a family theme park than a memorial to the Confederation.
The exhibition, approved by the board of directors, is intended to tell the story of the carving, including its roots in efforts to preserve racial segregation. It will also reflect the site’s role in the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. The group made their comeback with a cross-burning ceremony on the mountain on Thanksgiving night in 1915.
Bill Stephens, CEO of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, said the seven-person committee charged with creating the exhibit will include community leaders and historians. The original plan was for the team to be assembled before Monday’s meeting, but that didn’t happen.
The Atlanta Journal constitution reported that Stephens said Monday that the memorial was in “final talks” with two historians and that an announcement could be made in about two weeks.
“We are still working on it and hopefully in the near future we will have everyone in the right place to move forward,” said Rev. Abraham Mosley, Chairman of the Board.
