STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. – Some statues of figures from the past slave owner of the United States have been demolished by protesters, others dismantled by order of governors or city leaders. But the largest Confederate monument ever created, colossal figures carved out of solid rock on the side of a Georgia mountain, may last longer than all.
The giant Stone Mountain sculpture representing General Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson on horseback has special protection enshrined in Georgia law.
Even if its demolition were sanctioned, the large size of the monument poses serious challenges. The size is 190 feet (58 meters) wide and 90 feet (27 meters) tall. An old photo shows a worker on a scaffold just below Lee’s chin barely reaching his nose.
Numerous Confederate statues and monuments to American slave owners have descended on the south amid recent protests against racial injustice. Stone Mountain has not gone unnoticed.
After organizing a protest where thousands marched in neighboring Atlanta, Zoe Bambara, 19, held a demonstration on June 4 with a much smaller group (her permit allowed no more than 25) inside the state park where the sculpture attracted millions of tourists for decades.
“The Confederation does not celebrate the south; celebrate white supremacy, “said Bambara, who is black.” The people on that mountain hated me. They didn’t know me, but they hated me and my ancestors. It hurts to see those people celebrated and a monument dedicated to them. ” .
Still, Bambara admits she is at a loss for what should be done with the massive monument, conceived some 50 years after the Civil War ended, but did not end until 1972.
The sculpture’s creators used dynamite to blow huge chunks of granite away from the mountain, and then spent years carving the detailed figures with hand torches.
Deleting the size would be dangerous, slow and expensive.
The stone is likely too durable for sandblasting, said Ben Bentkowski, president of the Atlanta Geological Society. Controlled explosions using TNT in drilled holes in the mountainside would work, he said.
“With logistics, the security aspect of it, I suspect you would have a budget north of $ 1 million,” said Bentkowski. “You will need insurance for the project, you will have to pay a risk to the people who work on the surface of the project. It could easily take a year or more.”
There is also a considerable legal obstacle.
When Georgia lawmakers voted in 2001 to change the state flag that had been dominated by the emblem of the Confederate battle since 1956, language to ensure the preservation of the Stone Mountain sculpture was included as a bargaining chip.
The law states that “the monument to the heroes of the Confederate States of America carved into the face of Stone Mountain will never be altered, removed, concealed, or concealed in any way.”
Ryan Gravel, an Atlanta-based urban designer, noted that maintenance is not required by law. He suggested allowing nature to take its course, allowing vegetation to grow on the sculpture from its nooks and crannies.
“I think we are at a time when it is possible to push the limits of that law,” said Gravel. “And certainly the scale of the challenge at Stone Mountain warrants it.”
Other ideas, such as adding a bell tower on top of the mountain in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., have not materialized. And Democratic proposals to remove protective language from Georgia law have failed with the Republican-controlled Legislature.
When asked if Stone Mountain still deserves special protection, Republican Governor Brian Kemp did not directly respond when speaking to reporters on June 26.
“As I have said many times, we cannot hide from our history,” Kemp said, citing the new hate crime law he signed the same day as a significant step in the fight against racial injustice.
Stone Mountain was not a battle site and was of little historical importance to the Civil War. But 50 years after the war ended, the exposed surface of the north face of the mountain sparked an idea among the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
“It looked like a giant billboard,” said Stan Deaton, a historian at the Georgia Historical Society.
The group hired sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who would later carve Mount Rushmore, to design a massive Confederate monument in 1915.
That same year, the film “The Birth of a Nation” glorified the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan, and Stone Mountain played a key role in its revival, marking its return with a burning cross on top of the mountain in the Thanksgiving night.
Budget problems plagued the Stone Mountain project, and work on the sculpture languished until the state purchased the mountain and surrounding land in 1958 for a public park. Completing the monument gained renewed urgency as the civil rights movement brought unwanted changes to the challenging southern states.
“It became the centerpiece of the park,” said Deaton. “There was never any doubt that the state’s intention to end this was in one piece with massive resistance.”
An estimated 10,000 people attended the dedication of the monument in 1970. Another two years passed before its official completion.
Five decades later, the park at Stone Mountain is marketed as a family theme park rather than a sanctuary from the “Lost Cause” mythology that romanticizes the Confederacy as knights defending the rights of states. Its website highlights miniature golf and a dinosaur-themed attraction while minimizing Confederate carving, Confederate flags, and brick terraces dedicated to each Confederate state.
Paula and Michael Smith of Monticello, Georgia, visited Stone Mountain on Monday so their 10-year-old grandson could see the monument for the first time.
“The mountain itself is absolutely stunning and the carving is an engineering marvel,” said Paula Smith, a 70-year-old white woman who declined to speak of removing or altering the carving in an attempt to “steal American history.”
Jarvis Jones climbs the steep hiking trail at the back of Stone Mountain several times a week. The 29-year-old black man said he tries to avoid seeing the size.
“I definitely understand that everyone wants their story to be represented,” Jones said. “But when it comes to the oppression of other people, I think it should change.”
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writers Ben Nadler and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this story.
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