Anti-Racism Coalition: We Had To Be 'Armed' At Stone Mountain

ATLANTA -- An anti-racism organization whose protest forced Stone Mountain Park officials to close one of Georgia's biggest tourist attractions over Super Bowl weekend said they had to be armed even though a planned white nationalist march was cancelled. The FrontLine Organization Working to End Racism (FLOWER) said earlier this week that it celebrated the cancellation of a white nationalist march set for Feb. 2 with a march of its own through Stone Mountain Village.

FLOWER was planning to counter the white-nationalist planned Rock Stone Mountain 2 with a counter-protest. But while Rock Stone Mountain 2 evaporated days before Super Bowl weekend, FLOWER went ahead with its own plans, prompting officials to close Stone Mountain Park with millions of visitors in town for the Super Bowl.

"Our event was peaceful, cheered on by many residents, and ended with street theater: the symbolic burning of an environmentally friendly papier-mâché Klansman," FLOWER said in a statement released earlier this week. "A small part of our march was armed. Given the fact that a Rock StoneMountain 2 organizer had called for guerrilla attacks the week before, and given historical examples of murderous attacks against antiracists by far-right extremists as occurred in Greensboro in 1979 and Charlottesville in 2017, the presence of armed security was necessary to protect the marchers and the community."

STONE MOUNTAIN, GEORGIA - FEBRUARY 02: Police stand guard at the entrance to the closed Stone Mountain park on February 02, 2019 in Stone Mountain, Georgia. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

According to City of Stone Mountain Police Chief Chancey Troutman, several groups had vowed to hold un-permitted demonstrations within the park, one of Georgia's top tourist attractions.

"In the interest of informing our community, you should know that the groups are a fragmentary collection of activist organizations motivated by racial politics," Troutman said. "This type of event may attract fringe elements seeking attention or with intent to cause trouble. These groups do not represent the Stone Mountain community, and we will not tolerate such folks disturbing the peacefulness of our Village."

Read more: Threat Of Left-Wing Protests Closes Stone Mountain On Saturday

Besides calling for Stone Mountain's carving of three Confederate leaders to be sandblasted, FLOWER also wants Stone Mountain park workers who were not paid that weekend to be reimbursed.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - FEBRUARY 02: People attend an afternoon rally against racism on February 02, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association denied a request from Rock Stone Mountain 2 organizers to hold its rally.

Read more: Civil Rights Organization Planning Saturday Stone Mountain Rally

Stone Mountain is one of the world's largest granite outcroppings, but its carving of three Confederate leaders on its facing has made the park a target of racial protests for years. The KKK held rallies and cross burnings atop the mountain from the 1940s through the 1960s, but recently, the park's Confederate-themed carving has drawn the ire of anti-white nationalist groups. In 2016, several people were arrested when civil rights and social justice advocates clashed with white supremacists.

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STONE MOUNTAIN, GEORGIA - FEBRUARY 02: A member of an anti-racist group stands guard near the entrance to the closed Stone Mountain park on February 02, 2019 in Stone Mountain, Georgia. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)