By Patrick Saunders, contributor 

Stone Mountain, GA — Georgia lawmakers filed a trio of new bills that would prohibit Confederate monuments across the state, with a focus on the world’s largest such memorial — the massive granite carving of rebel leaders at Stone Mountain Park.

“It is not a matter of if they’ll come down, it’s a matter of when,” said state Rep. Billy Mitchell at a Feb. 3 press conference at the state Capitol. “The time when Confederate memorials seemed appropriate has long passed, not only in this state but in this country.”

House Bills 237 and 238 were filed by Rep. Shelly Hutchinson, a Democrat from Snellville.

The bills would remove the legal protections for Confederate monuments and 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.” Exceptions would be made for museums and Civil War battlefields.

Hutchinson noted the 1911 lynching of a Black man named Charlie Hale outside the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse in Lawrenceville.

“Today, if you go to that square, there is nothing about Charlie Hale,” she said. “But 10 feet away from where he was lynched, there is a Confederate monument. This is an ultimately disrespectful situation that I do not wish on my constituents, I do not wish on children who walk by, and it has to be explained what happened here.”

“We’ve been insulted for far too long, and this is why I have introduced these bills this year. I introduced them last year, and I will keep introducing them until they’re passed,” she added.

To read the full story on the Tucker Observer, click here.

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