Stone Mountain and other monuments to the Confederacy should be wiped clean

CNN

In last week’s memorial service for George Floyd, the Rev. Al Sharpton noted that the recent demonstrations against abusive policing were caused not just by Floyd’s death after a white officer kneeled on his throat. Instead, it was the last straw after centuries of oppression. Mr. Sharpton noted, “Because ever since 401 years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is you kept your knee on our neck.”

One weapon to suppress African Americans: monuments to white supremacists. Soon after the Civil War, Southern whites began reasserting their dominance. During the following 80 years of Jim Crow segregation, their methods included glorifying confederate leaders.

Most of the large monuments began to appear in the early 20th Century, long after the war ended in 1865. The goal was not to preserve “Southern heritage,” as the monuments’ defenders now claim. Instead, the goal was to install white-supremacist icons that would intimidate African Americans and enforce whites’ supremacy. Historian W. Fitzhugh Brundage, for example, has written that the monuments “were sometimes explicitly linked to the cause of white supremacy by the notables who spoke at their dedication” and that white industrialist Julian Carr “unambiguously urged his audience to devote themselves to the maintenance of white supremacy with the same vigor that their Confederate ancestors had defended slavery.

The history of the giant carvings on Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, is instructive. Planning of the carvings began only in 1914. Substantial funding for the project came from the KKK, which met on the mountain’s top to burn crosses and the project’s first directors and promoters were Klan members. The original plan was to depict General Robert E. Lee leading Confederate soldiers and Klan members up the mountain. Many other Confederate monuments were erected during this period, helping consolidate Jim Crow’s racist hierarchy.

Read the rest here: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/opinions/stone-mountain-confederacy-monuments-white-supremacy-shepherd/index.html

13 thoughts on “Stone Mountain and other monuments to the Confederacy should be wiped clean”

    1. And the freemasons who are they…ahhh know your enemy
      “Freemasonry is a Jewish establishment, whose history, grades, official appointments, passwords, and explanations are Jewish from beginning to end.”—-Rabbi Isaac Wise

      -flek

      Reply

  2. I really don’t get why so many have such a hard -on against our history

    This is part of what shaped this country
    Refusing to know first of all ,the truth .. is part of a big disconnect with society today

    I have passed relatives that fought on both sides of this historical event
    I’m not going to tarnish their memories by playing some political football game
    And neither should anyone else
    We’re there bad guys ? … yup both sides
    We’re there bad policies that came out of this ? , yep and some still plague us til this day
    But getting all butt hurt over monuments is fckin childish and disrespectful

    I hope I never have to see this being done in my presence, I’ll be calling y’all for bail

    If I am wrong here , please educate me … I’m not here to ruffle feathers
    Just trying to grasp the stupidity , or make sense of this

    Reply

    1. I agree with you. If the past is erased we lose our roots, even our identity, heritage, traditions, customs, memories. Even the so-called “mistakes” of the past are important because they teach so much. What’s that old saying? Something like, “Those who ignore the past are bound to repeat it.” Also, the past helps us remember what we cherish and what we’ll fight for, as well as whom. I feel extremely protective of it, like DON’T FRIKKIN’ MESS WITH MY REALITY!! And on destroying monuments… the art alone is amazing, valuable, unique. Most monuments are one-of-a-kind masterpieces, telling the story of time, even if it included cruelty and oppression. I don’t think any say, “Here is a perfect human being who served a perfect system.” Ha!! Is there any person or race that can claim that? We’d never have a monument again, let alone meaningful art. Let ignorance stop erasing history!!

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          1. Yeah. And I wonder if he died. Hope we hear. And those kids who did the pushin’… Life can’t be good for them right now.

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          1. Just read a story where it says he survived it with severe head injury
            In hospital now

          3. Thanks, EOTS.

            And Mark, as I understand it, plans are already underway for dismantling Mt. Rushmore and carving four new iconic faces into the granite mountain, and yes, Bibi will be one of the four. The other three are: Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Dr. Fauci. There were many requests for a fifth face, but a decision has not yet been reached in terms of Hillary being honored by being allotted a place among the guys. It’s all so very exciting. I’ll let you know if I hear more.

            🙂

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