Atlanta NAACP plans large July 4 protest

Groups plans to march 2 miles to top of Stone Mountain.

The Atlanta chapter of the NAACP wants the carvings of Confederate leaders gone from the side of Stone Mountain.

The group is planning a large protest today, beginning at 7 a.m. The group will meet at a rally point in Stone Mountain Village visitors center and then march about 2 miles to the top of the mountain.

“Join us to protest America’s bigotry at the world’s largest shrine to white supremacy. Express your disapproval of racism, sexism, religious intolerance and discrimination based on national origin,” reads a notice about the rally on the chapter’s website.

The north face of Stone Mountain depicts three Confederate figures — Confederacy President Jefferson Davis and generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Work on the carving began in 1923, according to the park’s website. It is 400 feet above ground and the entire carved surface covers about three acres. It is larger than Mount Rushmore.

Stone Mountain has again become a focal point as conversations about removing Confederate monuments across the country have escalated. In 2017, Baltimore removed its statue of Lee, New Orleans removed four Confederate statues and several other cities around the country followed.

Around that time, in August, Stacey Abrams — now the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia — called for the removal of the Stone Mountain carvings in a series of tweets, saying, “Confederate monuments belong in museums where we can study and reflect on that terrible history, not in places of honor across our state . ... The visible image of Stone Mountain’s edifice remains a blight on our state and should be removed.”

On Tuesday, commenting on a tweet about the NAACP’s rally, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle — who is now in a runoff race for the Republican nomination for governor — said, “When I’m governor, I’ll fight to preserve Stone Mountain as the monument and cultural attraction it was intended to be. I’ll work on behalf of all Georgians, but I will also stand up to the extremists who think we have to sandblast the past to move into the future.”