STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) – In the shadow of the world’s largest memorial to the Confederacy, the City of Stone Mountain will host its first-ever Juneteenth celebration this summer.
City leaders hope the holiday event, which honors the end of slavery, will highlight and preserve the city’s Black history that often gets lost amid retellings of Ku Klux Klan meetings and clashes between activists and militia members.
While Stone Mountain’s history is steeped in racism and white supremacy, Mayor Pro Tem Chakira Johnson said the city’s identity couldn’t be more different in 2021.
“We are not the Stone Mountain of past where the KKK was marching down the street,” Johnson said. “We have not been for awhile.”
The city of roughly 6,300 people is about 77% Black, and Johnson said many people have personal connections to Juneteenth, a holiday in remembrance of Texas slaves learning they were free two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Over the past few years, Juneteenth has received more widespread exposure, which includes DeKalb County making it a paid holiday last year.