STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) - The directors of Georgia's Stone Mountain Park have acknowledged demands for change, but say they won't decide on removing any symbols, let alone the world's largest Confederate monument, until after the General Assembly meets next year.
Until then, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association is appointing a panel to review proposals for changes at the park east of Atlanta. Board chairman Ray Smith III named CEO Bill Stephens to lead the review at a meeting Monday.
The sculpture of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson that is carved into the mountain's northern face has special protection in Georgia law, but the park is under pressure to reexamine its remembrances of the Confederacy.
"I anticipate this work will take months, not years," Smith said in a statement. "I anticipate this work will be inclusive, not exclusive, and I anticipate this work will address both the economic and cultural importance this park has to the local communities and the entire state."
Stephens told local news outlets it might be possible for the association to act in late spring or early summer, depending on whether the General Assembly makes changes to state law and on what proposals the review panel considers. The association is charged by state law with developing the park and preserving it as a memorial to the Confederacy.
Groups including the Stone Mountain Action Coalition have been pushing the board to change street names that memorialize Confederate generals, remove Confederate flags that fly at the base of the mountain and eventually address the carving. They argue the law leaves enough wiggle room to make changes without further legislation, but the association disagrees.
"There are all kinds of proposals," Stephens said. "As we vet them, some will make the cut and some won't. I think in general what the board has been saying is we're in favor of additions to the park, not subtractions. But that's to be determined too."
Sheri Lake, a leader of the coalition, said she appreciates that the association isn't "just throwing the issue under a rug." But she's wary of how the committee process might be conducted and worries about how transparent it will be.
"When they talk about additions as opposed to change, that continues to concern us," Lake said.
State Rep. Billy Mitchell, a Stone Mountain Democrat who attended Monday's meeting in support of the coalition, said he will introduce a bill to make the law "unambiguous," stating that the association has the power to make changes.
"To be quite candid with you, it's not a matter of if this will change, it's a matter of when," said Mitchell. "At a previous meeting, the folks who run the commercial aspects of the park said 'look, we're losing money because of the protests and because of people having this image of the park.'"