Monument: The Untold Story of Stone Mountain

April 13, 2023 1:27 PM

“Atlanta History Center explores the controversial history of the Stone Mountain carving through a documentary film [CW] and online resources.”

• “Atlanta History Center’s first documentary takes on Stone Mountain,” Tyler Estep, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11 January 2023
• “How Stone Mountain weaponized art against Black people, in a compelling new documentary,” Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angles Times, 12 January 2023
• “How The World's Largest Confederate Memorial Exists In One Of Georgia's Blackest Cities,” Jameelah Nasheed, Essence, 16 January 2023

via “Carve OutKast Into Stone Mountain,” Mack Williams, Austin L. Ray's How I’d Fix Atlanta, 13 April 2023

Cf., Stone Mountain (2005) [CW] by Kevin McGowan

posted by ob1quixote (15 comments total)

Blow it up.
posted by aiq at 1:35 PM on April 13, 2023 [17 favorites]

i distinctly remember being a kid in 1986 or so and watching the laser show of the confederates riding off into battle - even as a 11/12 yo it was ... awkward ... to watch the confederacy so celebrated.
posted by carlodio at 1:35 PM on April 13, 2023 [9 favorites]

Add the gate to Hell on the left and you have a complete and beautiful work of art.
posted by ocschwar at 1:37 PM on April 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

(And General Sherman on the right.)
posted by ocschwar at 1:44 PM on April 13, 2023 [9 favorites]

Blow it up.

Yes, but give it to the US Army, to use for artillery target practice. While we're at it, give John Brown a pardon and a federal holiday.
posted by mikelieman at 2:36 PM on April 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

give it to the US Army, to use for artillery target practice

They already shelled those guys to pieces the last time.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:49 PM on April 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

America doesn't have a future with this symbol of hate, in the sense that the future is different from the past.
posted by adept256 at 2:58 PM on April 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

Hi. I live here. Stone Mountain Park is gorgeous and over 3200 acres. I run or walk there nearly every day. The path from Stone Mountain Village enters on the southwest side. The carving is a very small part of the north side. It is very easy to spend all day there and not even see the confederate shit. If the state didn't spend thousands of dollars every year maintaining it, the carving of the racist traitors would be overgrown by lichens and moss and look like the rest of the mountain in a few years.

Here's a previous comment from me about the crowd of us who walk and run around the park daily.

All that is to say, I really suggest actually watching the documentary. It's good.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:03 PM on April 13, 2023 [21 favorites]

Stone mountain has a lot of very cool and unique granite outcrop plant communities. It s a very cool place, and I wish I knew more about how native people thought of it

In stead of the awful laser show nonsense. Have they at least changed the laser show by now?

Anyway, blowing it up is kind of a dumb idea
posted by eustatic at 5:55 PM on April 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm here for Mr. 3000 and Mr. Foot up there.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 6:15 PM on April 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

3 Stacks and Daddy Fat Sax?
posted by badbobbycase at 7:30 PM on April 13, 2023

eustatic: “Stone mountain has a lot of very cool and unique granite outcrop plant communities.”

Nearby Panola Mountain State Park offers a pristine monadnock where the ecology of a granite dome has been conserved.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:54 PM on April 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

Blowing it up no more dumb than carving it in the first place.

State sponsored Klan terrorist memorial.
posted by aiq at 12:05 PM on April 15, 2023

sure. but from the article:

My haters will tell you that the sculpture is just too big. That it would be impossible to remove or change it. Well, it’s certainly huge—there’s no debating that. But removing it is possible. We could just blow it off the side of the mountain if we want to. (And perhaps we should!) But that would take a tremendous amount of money and time.

There are some cheaper alternatives. BeltLine mastermind Ryan Gravel has suggested officials stop cleaning the sculpture and simply let nature take over. First of all, did you know they clean it!? Imagine mud and leaves accumulating in Robert E. Lee’s ears and eye sockets, trees and shrubs growing out of Jefferson Davis’ nose, natural erosion slowly polishing Stonewall Jacksons’ horse into a memory. The slow transition of an embarrassing, racist history into glorious, beautiful nature? It would probably be pretty satisfying, honestly.

But there’s a better solution that honors Georgia’s real culture: We should carve OutKast into Stone Mountain.

Georgia law specifically states that the carving “shall never be altered, removed, concealed, or obscured in any fashion” as a tribute to the “bravery and heroism” of Confederate soldiers who fought for their “cause.” (Quick reminder: their cause was slavery!) But truly, all we need is enough passionate state legislators to repeal or change the law. While this is pretty unlikely in the near term, it can certainly be done.

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/georgia-add-outkast-to
posted by eustatic at 12:48 PM on April 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

...Imagine mud and leaves accumulating in Robert E. Lee’s ears and eye sockets, trees and shrubs growing out of Jefferson Davis’ nose, natural erosion slowly polishing Stonewall Jacksons’ horse into a memory.

Moss come in many colors. They could moss garden up them up enmass as sunglassed dudes in dreads sucking on doobies and flashing rainbow buttons. Maybe packing half a rack of Bud Light or two as well.
posted by y2karl at 7:44 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]