Accessibility links

Breaking News
USA

Georgia Closes Park with Confederate Sculpture


FILE - Confederate flag supporters climb Stone Mountain to protest of what they believe is an attack on their Southern heritage during a rally at Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Aug. 1, 2015.
FILE - Confederate flag supporters climb Stone Mountain to protest of what they believe is an attack on their Southern heritage during a rally at Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Aug. 1, 2015.

A park in the southern U.S. state of Georgia is not opening Saturday because of a planned right-wing rally.

Pro-Confederate, white supremacists and other right-wing groups had called for the rally, following a peaceful demonstration by a Black militia at the park last month.

Stone Moutain Park, in suburban Atlanta, feared a violent confrontation between the two groups, after the Black militia group called for a counter-demonstration.

A rock carving in Stone Mountain, Georgia, depicts Confederate Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, two prominate generals, as well as Jeffereson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.
A rock carving in Stone Mountain, Georgia, depicts Confederate Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, two prominate generals, as well as Jeffereson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.

The Black militia, however, canceled its demonstration plans earlier this week, according to the Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear if the right-wing groups will still show up at the park Saturday.

Stone Mountain Park, in suburban Atlanta, is home to a giant sculpture of Confederate leaders.

The U.S. is undergoing a reckoning with its shrines to the Confederacy. While some people see the Confederacy as a chivalrous defenders of states’ rights, others see the Confederacy as responsible for the enslavement and degradation of Black people.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG