3 New Bills Target GA Confederate Monuments, Stone Mountain Park

ATLANTA, GA — Two state House Democrats presented three new bills Wednesday that would remove protections from Confederate monuments throughout Georgia and prohibit the construction of monuments related to the Confederacy in the future — and end the maintenance of the Confederate memorial at Stone Mountain Park.

State Rep. Billy Mitchell of Stone Mountain filed House Bill 277 Wednesday, which would allow the Stone Mountain Memorial Association — a state authority charged by law with "proper development, management, preservation and protection of Stone Mountain as a Confederate Memorial and public recreation area," per the SMMA website — to "relocate, remove, conceal, obscure or alter certain monuments" within Stone Mountain Park, and allow the association to stop maintaining the Confederate sculpture there.

“This bill will simply give the memorial association authority to change the policy,” Mitchell said at a press conference Wednesday morning. “They will be able to take down memorials, Confederate flags, and stop maintaining the sculpture that is on the granite rock there.”

HB 277 would also allow the SMMA to remove references to the Confederate memorial and remove the requirement for the association to sell Confederate memorabilia at the park, but does not require the immediate removal or erasure of the Confederate sculpture carved on Stone Mountain’s northern face, which depicts Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

“My preference is that they all come down tomorrow, but I think my approach is a little more pragmatic than that,” Mitchell said.

State Rep. Shelly Hutchinson of Snellville filed House Bills 237 and 238 earlier this week — sponsored by Mitchell — which, if passed, would remove protections for Confederate monuments in the way Georgia law is written, as well as "prohibit the display of monuments, memorials, plaques, markers or memorabilia related to the Confederate States of America, slave owners or persons advocating for slavery" on public property throughout the state. Exceptions would include Civil War battlefields and museums.

However, with the General Assembly as a Republican majority, it could be difficult to get this type of legislation passed. One Republican colleague — state Rep. Tommy Benton of Jefferson — proposed HB 220 earlier this week, on the same day as Hutchinson’s bills, which would require two representatives each from the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Georgia Civil War Commission be added to the board of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association. The bill is sponsored by Republican state Reps. Steve Tarvin, Jason Ridley and Danny Mathis.

Hutchinson said Georgia is ready to move on from this time period.

HB 277 is in its first reading status in the House as of Friday morning, and HBs 220, 237 and 238 are in the second reading status in the House.