The Atlanta chapter of the NAACP officially called for the removal of Stone Mountain’s iconic Confederate Memorial carving on Monday. The carving features confederate Generals “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee, as well as Jefferson Davis, who served as President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
The call comes three days after the Confederate battle flag was ceremonially removed from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds in Columbia.
According to WSB-TV in Atlanta, the organization released a statement calling for the removal of all symbols of the Confederacy from the park, as well as any other state-owned buildings, parks and lands.
“Those guys need to go,” the President of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, Richard Rose, told WSB. “They can be sand-blasted off or somebody could carefully remove a slab of that and auction it off to the highest bidder.”
A spokesman for Stone Mountain Park said removing the flags or monuments would require action by the Georgia Legislature.
According to Stone Mountain Park’s official web site, the carving is the largest high relief sculpture in the world and took nearly 50 years to complete, from 1923 to 1970.
