State Senator Emanuel Jones is an example of naked ambition meets complicity. The first reaction to oppression is resistance, then acknowledgement, next acceptance (or compliance) and finally, complicity. Senator Jones has claimed that Martin L. King, Jr. spoke favorably about Stone Mountain in his "I Have A Dream" speech. In fact, in the speech given at the 1963 March on Washington, King referred to Stone Mountain as a place for freedom to ring among other unliikely places that even today voting rights abridgment continues and the symbols of racism fly and massive monuments to racism and oppression remain. King said " But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring."
It should not be forgotten that Mississippi meted out the harshest prison sentences to Freedom Riders, some of whom languished behid bars while thousands descended on our capitol for the march. Lookout Mountain was a lily-white surburb of Chatanooga, TN famous as a Confedreatre stronghold. Yet Jones has claimed that the reference to Stone Mountain was favorable as rationale to place a commemorative bell on top of Stone Mountain inscribed with a King quotation. Somehow Jones believes that adding a 10 foot bell dedicated to King on the mountain is an answer to the 17,000 square foot carving conceived as a tribute to the Ku Klux Klan by Helen Plane of the United Daughters of the Confedearcy.
Has Jones no shame? He should understand that there can be no compromise on principle. Germany does not allow the swastika to be flown on any day anywhere. There are no statues of Hitler or Goering. But America endorses the celebration of the leaders of the Confederacy, trailors to America, as a way of reinforcing racial discrimination as if it is an honorable difference of opinion. Call or email Jones to express your diagreement with his proposal that endorses the Confederacy.
emanuel.jones@senate.ga.gov (404) 656-0502 (770) 964-8888
#UniteAmerica #EndTheConfederacy