This article is an opinion.
In an effort to end all the disagreements and unpleasantness about the giant stone carving of three Confederate heroes on the side of Stone Mountain, I want to propose a solution.
I’m sure it’s not an original idea. But I say: Throw a big tarp over it and leave it to cover the 190-foot by 90-foot structure — even during the summertime laser shows in the surrounding park.
Remove it only on occasions when the huge artwork needs to be visible, such as when groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans meet there and request it.
Yes, it will still exist and memorialize three heroes of the “Lost Cause” which sought to preserve a system in which African-Americans were enslaved.
But, have you got a better idea for a compromise solution to calls for removing something that offends a good chunk of Georgia’s population?
Some opponents of the granite structure have said the state-owned memorial should be sandblasted or dynamited off the mountainside — two potentially difficult, expensive and hazardous tasks.
Others say the 48-year-old carving should be left alone because of its historical significance, or because it portrays three heroes of the “Lost Cause” which many Southerners’ ancestors fought and died for.
In recent years, groups offended by it have clashed with groups defending it for a variety of reasons.
The latest incident Aug. 15 involved a sometimes violent clash between opposing groups of armed demonstrators in the nearby city of Stone Mountain. The state agency that operates the park surrounding the mountain closed it to visitors because they were worried about, you guessed it, the potential for violent clashes.
A little background: Stone Mountain is a 1,700-foot gray, granite mountain in eastern DeKalb County which had been used as a source for building stone for decades.
It also was the site of a 1915 rally that led to the creation of the modern Ku Klux Klan which featured white supremacy as a core belief.
The mountain’s granite etching portrays likenesses of Generals Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and President Jefferson Davis side by side astride their horses.
It is cut about 42 feet deep into the granite, about 400 feet above the ground. It occupies a 17,100-square-foot area of the mountainside — about the size of eight or nine houses if they were crammed together like in a modern Atlanta subdivision.
A nightly summertime laser show (sponsored before and, hopefully, after COVID-19) brings thousands to the park and includes a segment in which the lasers seemingly bring the “heroes” to life by having their horses “move.”
After the South’s crushing defeat in the Civil War, the United Daughters of the Confederacy early in the 20th century raised funds to place hundreds of memorial statues throughout the South, including in Covington.
They also originated the idea of a memorial at Stone Mountain that ultimately became the carving that was completed over a series of decades in 1972.
As this year’s civil rights protests continue — and this new era of activism continues — I see no end to the objections, and the objections to the objections.
And I see no ideas being raised about how to end the squabbling over a big granite memorial to the Confederacy.
Tom Spigolon is news editor of The Covington News. He can be reached at tspigolon@covnews.com.
