In the face of anti-DEI legislation and attacks on Black history, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has accused state officials of breaking the law following plans to erect a slavery exhibit. Now, their suing big time.
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Nestled just 30 minutes from the heart of Atlanta, Stone Mountain is one of Georgia's most popular tourist attractions. Thousands flock to the park each year to enjoy family activities, hiking trails, and rich views from the top of the mountain. But on the way up to the top, visitors are often slapped in the face with a glaring remnant of the Civil War: the country's largest Confederate monument.
Massive carvings on the mountain's face depict Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, and Gen. Robert E. Lee on horseback. The controversial site has faced many complaints from residents, civil rights leaders and tourists, who all claim the carving is offensive and disrespectful to the descendants of slavery, especially since the Confederacy lost the Civil War.
Georgia-- one of the last states to abolish slavery-- has a complex racial history. The carving was created in 1915 as a commission by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. But despite the controversies, the Sons of Confederate Veterans still gather at the carving to honor Confederate Memorial Day every year, usually adding fuel to the growing tensions among residents. But things changed for the Confederate group after the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, and they're seemingly not happy about it.
That's when the Stone Mountain Memorial Association agreed to remove the mountain's many Confederate flags-- prompting a lawsuit from Confederate groups in May-- for a "truth-telling" exhibit detailing Stone Mountain's role in the formation of the Klu Klux Klan, slavery and the carving's racist roots, according to AP News. While many Georgia residents celebrated this as a win, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other groups in the area were furious.
So on July 1, they filed a suit claiming the state is breaking the law. "When they come after the history and attempt to change everything to the present political structure, that’s against the law," said Martin O’Toole, the spokesperson for the Confederate Sons.
In the lawsuit, obtained by Fox 5 News, the group claims the new exhibit "completely repurpose[s] the Stone Mountain Memorial Park" and "utterly ignore[s] the purpose of the Georgia legislature in creating and maintaining" the park.
The proposal for the exhibit states it "will explore how the collective memory created by Southerners in response to the real and imagined threats to the very foundation of Southern society, the institution of slavery, by westward expansion, a destructive war, and eventual military defeat, was fertile ground for the development of the Lost Cause movement amidst the social and economic disruptions that followed."
The exhibit simply aims to give more historic context to the segregationist depictions at the park and hasn't even been opened yet. But the Confederate Sons' lawsuit could prevent the development from seeing the public eye.
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