# MLK monument on Stone Mountain: Yea, Nay or Eh? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 14, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633 "2015-10-14T14:58:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/81 "2015-10-16T19:29:05Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > When I saw the title of the thread I thought immediately “yea” and am surprised at the number of people who are strongly nay. I understand and respect that opinion (no one is wrong) but IMO having a MLK monument at Stone Mountain is a slap to what it originally stood for and I like that. It’s also a slap to MLK. Personally, I think his legacy is more than just a middle finger to racism. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/82 "2015-10-16T19:41:07Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It’s also a slap to MLK. Personally, I think his legacy is more than just a middle finger to racism. MLK himself brought up Stone Mountain. Wouldn’t it be a symbol of his eventual triumph\* to have “freedom ring” from an originally racist monument? I would think it would make Stone Mountain one less place for racist bastards to congregate. I like the idea of Stone Mountain being subsumed by a better cause. - - This assumes one believes that MLK eventually triumphed despite being assassinated and with remnants of racism still in existence. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/83 "2015-10-16T19:46:16Z")
Freedom ringing from Stone Mountain was supposed to be a metaphor. Putting an MLK monument there won’t make it any more “free.” ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/84 "2015-10-16T21:18:50Z")
Somehow, I think I’ll be able to struggle on despite history’s disapproval should we decide to destroy the monument. I think “In 2015, America realized it was incredibly gauche to have a monument to slavery in one of their states and broke the fucker into tiny pieces” reads a lot better than “America maintained a monument to slavery ‘because history’ well past any acceptable timeframe” anyway. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/85 "2015-11-19T18:05:34Z")
The board of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association has now decided to build a museum exhibit that will tell the story of African-American soldiery during the Civil War. More [here](http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/adding-the-african-american-experience-to-a-confed/npQf5/). The bell tower has been put on hold. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/86 "2015-11-19T19:12:10Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > The board of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association has now decided to build a museum exhibit that will tell the story of African-American soldiery during the Civil War. More [here](http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/adding-the-african-american-experience-to-a-confed/npQf5/). > > The bell tower has been put on hold. I like the idea of a museum MUCH better. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/87 "2015-11-19T22:26:11Z")
No, we have MLK museums all over the damn place. No one goes to them. OTOH, people still show up to see the lasers and light show on the colossal racist sculpture. The genius of the bell tower monument is that the racists would have to listen to the bells while viewing the confederates. You wouldn’t be able to avoid hearing freedom ringing, no matter what you’re doing. The confederate monument in the park (and I don’t want it destroyed. Let stand as a badge of shame for the shameless) is a site of entertainment and family fun. MLK’s memorial deserves to be bigger and brighter, not to say, louder. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/88 "2015-11-20T02:15:48Z")
And yeah, ok, we can have a museum, too. I like museums. I like making jobs for museum professionals. It’s fine. And clearly, we’re going to want a gift shop. And some place where we can host bell ringing competitions. OOO, and bell ringing classes. Surely there’s some sort of national bell ringers thing, with national competitions. And we could get bell ringing choirs in from all around the world. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/89 "2015-11-20T02:34:34Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > No, we have MLK museums all over the damn place. No one goes to them. What? No, there are streets and things _named_ for him all over. There are events and little temporary exhibits. Busloads of people do visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site every day. That comprises the King Birth Home, Ebenezer Baptist Church, the museum, and his tomb… all in Atlanta, just 17 miles from Stone Mountain. So yes, another museum _there_ probably is redundant. But not because MLK museums are everywhere. Apart from the Atlanta complex, there’s the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, which is where it is because of King, but it’s not only about him. And… what? As far as I know, people don’t go to any others because there aren’t any. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/90 "2015-11-20T12:23:21Z")
It’s not a MLK museum; it is a museum about black soldiers who fought in the Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/91 "2015-11-20T12:36:12Z")
If you go to the museum in Georgia at the site of the Andersonville POW camp, you’ll learn just gobs and gobs about how the union prisons were every bit as lethal, and in some ways even worse (the could have afforded better care, but deliberately scrimped; there was no deadline: they just shot prisoners when they were as close to the fence as the day’s mood dictated). All interesting stuff, and it clearly demonstrates the Confederate history buffs’ commitment to the fairness doctrine, right? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/92 "2015-11-20T14:38:23Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > It’s not a MLK museum; it is a museum about black soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Yes. I just had to address a regrettable comment. Honestly I think the bell tower was a better idea for the Stone Mountain site, as a reference to the speech (visitors there could be directed into town for the fuller MLK experience). A museum on black soldiers should be in a place relevant to them. Beacon Hill and Morris Island are the famous endpoints for the “Glory” regiment, but the site of a victory would be traditionally appropriate too. Darien might be too complex a narrative for general consumption. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/93 "2015-11-20T14:41:58Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > If you go to the museum in Georgia at the site of the Andersonville POW camp, you’ll learn just gobs and gobs about how the union prisons were every bit as lethal, and in some ways even worse (the could have afforded better care, but deliberately scrimped; there was no deadline: they just shot prisoners when they were as close to the fence as the day’s mood dictated). > > All interesting stuff, and it clearly demonstrates the Confederate history buffs’ commitment to the fairness doctrine, right? Better than the yet-unbuilt museum at Elmira, I expect. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633/94 "2015-11-20T15:57:40Z")
I like the idea of the bell tower. But make it interactive. Put a bell there, with a hammer, and anyone who wants to can ring the bell, and hear freedom ringing from Stone Mountain. I considered a sign with two arrows on it, one pointing to MLK that says “He won” and another pointing to Jeff Davis that says “He lost”, but that would be petty. Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlk-monument-on-stone-mountain-yea-nay-or-eh/734633.md?page=4)