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.
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- This assumes one believes that MLK eventually triumphed despite being assassinated and with remnants of racism still in existence.
Freedom ringing from Stone Mountain was supposed to be a metaphor. Putting an MLK monument there won’t make it any more “free.”
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.
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.
The bell tower has been put on hold.
I like the idea of a museum MUCH better.
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.
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.
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.
It’s not a MLK museum; it is a museum about black soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
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?
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.
Better than the yet-unbuilt museum at Elmira, I expect.
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