Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Confederate Monuments on Public Lands Present Special Problems

Marissa Melton

   For Shelly Hutchinson, a Georgia state representative, the message of
   Stone Mountain, the nation's largest Confederate monument, is personal.

   The 250-meter-high mountain of quartz monzonite bears the largest
   bas-relief carving in the world, featuring the likenesses of
   Confederacy President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Generals Robert
   E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, in a grandiose piece of art
   plainly visible from a nearby highway.

   This homage to the Civil War -- the war Americans fought at least in
   part over the right to own slaves -- is located in the suburbs of
   Atlanta, Georgia, where more than one-third of the population is black.
   And U.S. census numbers show that the village of Stone Mountain, within
   sight of the huge carving, has a population that is nearly
   three-quarters black.

   "Kids (are) molded by their environment," Hutchinson said in a recent
   phone interview. "If you have schoolchildren who drive past that
   memorial or any other Confederate memorial, the message is that the
   Confederacy means more than you do."

   Yet, there are others, like Martin O'Toole of Atlanta's Sons of
   Confederate Veterans, who say getting rid of Confederate monuments
   would be akin to trying to erase history, and discussion of their
   significance is normal.

   "Diversity of opinion on these matters is essential," he said in an
   email to VOA.

   Since 1915, the mountain has been a gathering place for the white
   supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan, and other groups like it. For
   decades, the Klan met annually at the site, with the blessing of the
   family who owned it. Even now that the mountain is state property,
   historic Confederate flags fly at the site, and some visitors bring
   their own.

.