Armed Black Panthers gathered at Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta to call for the park’s massive Confederate carving to be removed.
The sculpture features Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson carved into a granite mountainside and is the largest Confederate monument in history. The site has long been a gathering site for KKK rallies after William J. Simmons led the rebirth of the KKK in 1915.
#BlackLivesMatter protest at Stone Mountain Park, a popular KKK gathering site, in Georgia. An estimated 400 – 1000 armed black panthers marching.
I don’t see any Proud Boys or Boogaloo Bois. What’s up with that?pic.twitter.com/muuqrfcsBw
— LiA (@LibsInAmerica) July 4, 2020
According to Stone Mountain Memorial Association spokesman John Bankhead, there were between 100 and 200 protesters at the site on July 4, adding that they were peaceful. Gerald Griggs, a vice president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP civil rights group, spoke about the protest, stating, “Here we are in Atlanta, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement and still we have the largest Confederate monument in the world. It’s time for our state to get on the right side of history.”