Left to right: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson are carved into the side of Stone Mountain. (Image from Stone Mountain Memorial Association proposals summary)
Proposals to add historical context around the Confederate carving at Stone Mountain are set to face a vote Monday amid calls to remove the controversial monument and backlash from its supporters.
The upcoming vote marks the first moves by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association to address longstanding outrage over the giant carving on the mountain’s side, which depicts Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
The proposals for an exhibit about the carving’s history as a post-Civil War memorial to the Confederacy and the removal of several Confederate flags to other areas of the park aim to balance passions on both sides of the issue and curb financial losses caused in part by the controversy, according to the association’s CEO, Bill Stephens.
“I believe you can’t cancel history and you can’t run from it,” Stephens said at an April 26 meeting in which he unveiled the proposals. “We believe in additions, not subtractions.”
The proposed exhibit for the carving would give an “honest telling of the whole story” on the mountain’s history as the site where the Ku Klux Klan was revived in 1915, as well as its significance as the world’s largest granite formation and “a gathering place since pre-history,” according to a summary of the proposals.
A set of flags including the Confederate battle emblem that stand beneath the 90-foot-tall carving would be relocated to a new site allowing “stronger identification with the carving and an ideal photo vantage point,” according to the proposals.
Additionally, the changes would include renaming the park’s Confederate Hall Historical and Environmental Education Center to “Heritage Hall,” revising the association’s logo to remove a depiction of the carving and building a new chapel on the mountain’s summit.
Support for adopting changes to how the park’s Confederate symbols are presented has been bolstered by the association’s new board leader, Rev. Abraham Mosley, who was tapped last month as the association’s first Black chairman.
“If these things are approved, we’re going with them,” Mosley said after last month’s meeting. “I want to see the whole story told. History is history. There’s the good, bad and the ugly.”
Critics and racial-justice advocates have long highlighted the carving’s origins as part of a push to erect Confederate monuments across the South during the Jim Crow era of segregation, when backers sought to promote the “Lost Cause” narrative of the Civil War and sweep away the influence of Reconstruction.
Early ideas for the carving came shortly before the Klan’s 1915 gathering on the mountain in which the hate group burned a large cross and formally launched its second founding, according to Todd Groce, president and CEO of the Georgia Historical Society.
The carving faced decades of delays until the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education to outlaw separate-but-equal policies and desegregate schools sparked renewed interest in its completion, Groce said. The carving was finished in 1972.
“It’s part of a massive resistance at that point to desegregation,” Groce said in a recent interview. “There’s nothing related to Civil War history that happened there. … It’s really more about that Jim Crow era.”
Momentum to remove the carving has built in the years since a mass shooting at an African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, S.C., committed by a white gunman in 2015, followed by a wave of protests to take down Confederate statues and other symbols in several states across the South.
More than 100 Confederate monuments remained standing in cities and towns across Georgia as of 2019, according to tracking by the nonprofit advocacy group Southern Policy Law Center. A handful have been removed in the years since the Charleston church shooting.
Supporters of the carving’s removal face an uphill battle due to legislation Gov. Brian Kemp signed in 2019 that bans altering or relocating Confederate monuments on property owned by the state, including Stone Mountain. New legislation introduced by state Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, aims to repeal that law.
“Today is a time to act on the proposals that have been made and to go further,” Mitchell said at the April 26 meeting. “Those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it. … [And] those who learn from their history and don’t make amends to the errors are just doomed.”
Meanwhile, opponents of changing the carving or adding educational context have dismissed the proposals, calling them attempts to erase history and the pride many Southerners take in their homes and heritage despite the old wounds of slavery, racism and war.
“Stone Mountain park by law is a memorial to the Confederacy,” said Martin O’Toole, a Marietta attorney and spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Georgia chapter. “It’s not the purpose to contextualize it. It’s not the purpose to talk about the Ku Klux Klan or other things like this.”
State lawmakers and worker advocates shout, “Open up these doors!” during a protest outside the Georgia Department of Labor office in Atlanta on May 19, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Labor advocates and state lawmakers in Georgia called on Gov. Brian Kemp Wednesday to reverse his decision to end expanded federal unemployment benefits next month, saying the move would hurt low-wage workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The governor’s announcement last week that he will end the extra federal $300 weekly unemployment checks on June 26 sent shock waves through many Georgia communities where unemployed workers have relied on the added benefit for months to cover rent, food and utility bills.
Local labor leaders protested Kemp’s decision outside the state Department of Labor building in downtown Atlanta, arguing the loss of the $300 per week would cripple many Georgians still struggling to find work during the pandemic.
They also questioned where the abandoned federal dollars would go instead since the Biden administration has authorized the additional federal benefit to remain into September.
“This is not the time to take away benefits from families,” said Nancy Flake Johnson, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Atlanta. “To take these modest resources away from families now is nothing less than inhumane.”
Kemp and opponents of the extra federal benefit have argued the $300 checks have incentivized many jobless Georgians to avoid rejoining the labor market, putting strain on local businesses still recovering from more than a year of economic damage caused by the pandemic.
State labor officials plan to nix several federal pandemic unemployment programs on June 26 along with the $300 extra benefit including an additional $100 for Georgians with mixed earnings, an extension on regular benefits and assistance for self-employed, part-time and gig workers.
“As we emerge from this pandemic, Georgians deserve to get back to normal,” Kemp said in a statement last Thursday. “And [last week’s] announced economic recovery plan will help more employees and businesses across our state do so.”
Critics accused Kemp of glazing over ongoing difficulties many out-of-work Georgians have faced while searching for new jobs or going months without their unemployment claims being processed.
Marcellus Rowe, a former public-transit worker in Atlanta, said he has had a tough time finding comparable work after losing his job in November 2019. The $300 federal benefit has been crucial to helping keep his finances afloat, he said at Wednesday’s protest.
“We are tired and frustrated,” Rowe said. “And as a Black man, begging and pleading are no longer options.”
Several labor advocates and Democratic lawmakers slammed Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, a Republican who – like Kemp – faces reelection next year. They criticized the continued closure of state labor offices due to the pandemic while Georgians are being asked to return to work.
“We all know that this system is broken and needs transparency,” said state Rep. Kim Schofield, D-Atlanta. “If you want people to be able to go to work and look for work, open these doors.”
Butler has said his office pushed to process nearly 5 million unemployment claims that have drawn an average of 60,000 phone calls a day from out-of-work Georgians, all with shorthanded staff and a tight budget that lawmakers left largely unchanged during the 2021 legislative session that ended March 31.
“We may have had to process a lot of claims, and had a lot of work,” Butler said in an email Thursday. “But we do not struggle at what we do. We’re very good at what we do.”
Even so, Butler has echoed Kemp in framing the extra federal benefit as a damper on attracting workers back to the labor market, noting also that his agency has distributed nearly $22 billion in benefits since the pandemic broke out.
“Right now, the state has a historic number of jobs listed on Employ Georgia,” Butler said in a statement last week. “We are seeing some of the highest pay scales with enhanced benefits and signing bonuses.”
But labor advocates and lawmakers rejected the argument that laid-off and furloughed workers are to blame for the labor issues, stressing that even with jobs many Georgians do not earn enough to make ends meet because of the state’s $7.25-per-hour minimum wage.
“What we hear from our leaders is blame, false assumptions and downright disrespect,” said state Sen. Tonya Anderson, D-Lithonia, who chairs the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus. “Georgia will never progress if our workers are not prioritized.”
This story was updated to clarify Commissioner Butler’s comments on his office’s efforts to process unemployment claims during the pandemic.
Georgia lawmakers are eying proposals to increase the amount longstanding state legislators receive in retirement benefits once they leave office, potentially upping the monthly payout by hundreds of dollars.
Four retirement bills filed late in the 2021 legislative session call for increasing the formula for calculating lawmakers’ retirement benefits, tweaking the pension allowance for the Georgia House speaker and shifting business-court judges to a different payment tier.
Supporters who considered the bills Tuesday at a House Retirement Committee meeting said boosting retirement benefits would help lawmakers who devote large chunks of time to bill-wrangling while also holding down full-time jobs, as well as attract Georgians to run for office who might not otherwise be able to afford it.
“I think this is really just a starting point of maybe how we can adjust the retirement part of what we do to try to attract some more talent, some more people who are willing to take time out of their lives to serve,” said Rep. Dominic LaRiccia, R-Douglas.
The measures were introduced in March during the closing weeks of the annual legislative session shortly after lawmakers shot down a separate proposal to raise salaries across the board for General Assembly members by several thousand dollars per year.
Two of the new bills would increase the dollar amount lawmakers receive upon retirement from the current allotment of $36 per month multiplied by their number of years in office. Lawmakers must serve in the General Assembly for at least eight years to qualify for benefits that they can start receiving at age 62.
One measure, sponsored by Rep. Wes Cantrell, R-Woodstock, would increase the formula from $36 to $60 per month, times years of service. The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, indicating it has some level of support among Democrats in the Republican-controlled House.
Cantrell said the proposed $60-multiplier was a high figure that could be revised lower when lawmakers take up his bill next year. He added the larger benefit should not hit taxpayers’ wallets since the legislative retirement plan is already overfunded.
Another bill sponsored by Rep. Tom Kirby, R-Loganville, would set the formula at either $50 or 38% of a lawmaker’s average monthly salary, whichever is the higher amount. Kirby’s bill also calls for increasing the lawmakers’ contribution to their pension fund from 7.5% to 9.5% of their monthly salary.
A third measure debated Tuesday and sponsored by Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, would set House speakers’ retirement allowances at 38% of their monthly salaries, so long as they have served at least two years in the chamber’s top post. It would affect benefits for current House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, and former Speakers Glenn Richardson and Terry Coleman.
A fourth bill sponsored by Rep. Rob Leverett, R-Elberton, would place judges in the statewide business court under the retirement plan for state appeals-court judges. It would apply to Judge Walt Davis, who is the only judge currently in the statewide business court system the legislature created in 2019.
Lawmakers did not vote on the bills Tuesday since the General Assembly is not currently in session. The four bills will have to wind through the legislative process once lawmakers reconvene for the 2022 session next January.
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan outlines his agenda for the 2020 legislative session at the State Capitol on January 13, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan announced Monday he will not seek reelection to another term as Georgia’s second-highest state elected official, opening the door for a fierce 2022 campaign between Republicans and Democrats vying to replace him.
In a statement, Duncan – a Republican – said he plans to create a political organization called “GOP 2.0” aimed at “healing and rebuilding” the national Republican Party amid the fallout from former President Donald Trump’s continued claims of voter fraud in the 2020 elections.
Duncan’s pivot away from Trump via public statements and television news appearances since the November 2020 general election pitted him against the former president and his allies who continue to hold a large influence over the state’s Republican Party and conservative voters in Georgia.
“The national events of the last six months have deeply affected my family in ways I would have never imagined when I first asked for their support to run for lieutenant governor in 2017,” Duncan said Monday.
“Through all of the highs and lows of the last six months, they have never left my side and are once again united behind me in my pursuit of a better way forward for our conservative party – a GOP 2.0.”
Duncan, a former health-care executive and Minor League Baseball player who served three terms in the Georgia House of Representatives, has focused much of his tenure as lieutenant governor pushing for investments and policy initiatives to position Georgia as what he calls “the technology capital of the East Coast.”
He has presided over three legislative sessions as head of the Georgia Senate since winning election over Democrat Sarah Riggs Amico by a narrow margin in 2018. Duncan said Monday he plans to preside over redistricting efforts in the Senate later this year as well as during the 2022 legislative session.
Duncan’s absence from campaigning next year will likely prompt stiff competition among Republicans during the 2022 primary. Several Democratic contenders have already thrown their hats in the ring including state Reps. Erick Allen of Smyrna and Derrick Jackson of Tyrone.
State Democratic leaders pounced on Duncan’s announcement Monday to bash Georgia Republicans as too tied to Trump, whose insistence that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent without solid proof fueled violent rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
“Donald Trump and the far-right have completely taken over the Republican Party with extreme rhetoric, racist voter suppression policies and a barrage of blatant lies about our presidential election,” said Scott Hogan, executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia.
“While Republicans try in vain to salvage their broken party, Democrats are focused on electing new, forward-looking leadership to the lieutenant governor’s office and [other] statewide offices in 2022.”
Democrats have already rolled out a roster of candidates for statewide offices beyond lieutenant governor including attorney general, secretary of state, insurance and labor. Democratic 2018 gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has not yet announced whether she will launch a rematch against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022.
Workers advocates in Georgia are pushing for further expansion of paid family leave after state lawmakers passed legislation to give state employees up to three weeks of time off following the birth of a child.
Representatives from several Georgia nonprofits met Friday to call for a broader paid family and medical leave program that offers up to 12 weeks of leave for new parents, sick leave for surgery or serious medical treatment and extending eligibility to care for a family member beyond one’s child.
A more comprehensive paid-leave program would help boost morale for Georgia employees and curb instances of health complications or death stemming from pregnancy, local advocates said.
“This is an important first step in the right direction toward supporting working families in Georgia,” Allison Glass, a training coordinator with the national women’s advocacy group 9to5’s Georgia chapter, said of the recent legislation on three-weeks paid family leave for state employees, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law earlier this month.
“[But] three weeks is not enough time and the vast majority of Georgians are still without any paid family or medical need whatsoever. … We believe that Georgia can lead the way in making paid leave accessible to all working Georgians.”
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, gained wide support from state lawmakers and advocates who hailed the measure as a boost for local businesses and workers, particularly amid the economic struggles over the past year caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is estimated to benefit about 246,000 state workers and teachers and will apply to parents following the birth of a child of their own, an adopted child or a foster-care placement.
The new Georgia leave program could come in addition to a proposed federal paid-family leave program included in President Joe Biden’s legislative package on worker protections and child tax credits called the American Families Plan.
Details of the federal leave program are still being hashed out by Congress, advocates noted Friday. Biden so far has called for passing a program that expands the definition of who could receive paid leave to workers caring for extended family members and close loved ones not related by blood.
Calling the Georgia legislation a good start, local advocates pressed for state lawmakers to expand the new leave program to cover all workers beyond state employees and teachers as well as adopt 12 weeks of time off, arguing the current three weeks gives too little time for new mothers to bond with their infants.
“When parents can dedicate their time to building bonds and increasing interactions post-partum, they are not only laying a strong foundation for their child but also creating the conditions for supporting the varying needs of new parenthood,” said Kyesha Lindberg, executive director of the nonprofit Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia.
Advocates also stressed an expanded leave program would particularly benefit members of Georgia’s immigrant communities who work in chicken-processing plants, fueling the state’s massive poultry industry.
“Paid leave for immigrant workers is so crucial,” said Maria Del Rosario Palacios, executive director of the Gainesville-based volunteer group Georgia Familias Unidas. “You can honor the contribution of so many amazing immigrant workers that work 14-hour shifts every single day and do so with pride, by allowing them paid leave.”
