ATLANTA — The Sons of Confederate Veterans organization is hinting at the possibility of a lawsuit if a liberty bell memorial honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is built on top of Stone Mountain.
The Stone Mountain Authority announced plans to erect a liberty bell monument on top of Stone Mountain with the words "Let freedom ring" – a phrase included in King's famous dream speech.
Through a statement, the Sons of Confederate Veterans called the move wholly inappropriate and an intentional act of disrespect to the Confederate soldiers who fought and died in the civil war, saying “the park was never intended to be a memorial to multiple causes but solely to the Confederate.
The group also says a monument to Dr. King would be “akin to the state flying a Confederate Battle flag atop the King Center in Atlanta.”
The Stone Mountain Authority says the park was created as a Confederate Memorial and remains so by Georgia law.
Atlanta NAACP Vice President Gerald Griggs told Geary, “Freedom’s not ringing when you’ve got Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee right under it.”
Griggs says his group doesn’t want to see Dr. King honored on top of the mountain either, but for very different reasons.
He says the group will fight the idea until all symbols of the Confederacy are removed, including the Confederate battle emblem flags and the carvings of the three Confederate leaders on the face of the mountain.
“Let’s put that part of history aside and let’s move forward in the spirit of equality and recognizing the rights of all human beings,” Griggs said.
Visitors to the park interviewed by Geary seemed in favor of the monument.
The Stone Mountain Authority is in the beginning stages of planning the monumnet and could have a final proposal by December.
They told Geary that no taxpayer money would be used.
WSBTV
