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Application To Hold Cross Burning Atop Stone Mountain Denied

August 16th, 2017

The KKK will not be allowed to burn a cross at Stone Mountain this fall.

The Stone Mountain Memorial Association has denied a permit request from the Sacred Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to hold an Oct. 21 “lighting” ceremony. The application was submitted May 26.

The ceremony was proposed to commemorate a November 1915 cross burning on top of Stone Mountain that marked the KKK’s revival. Crosses were burned there annually, decades ago.

In the wake of events in Charlottesville, Virginia, some people in Georgia — including some gubernatorial candidates —are calling for the removal of the carving of Confederate leaders on the side of Stone Mountain.

Carved into the mountain are figures of Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.

The Stone Mountain Association said in a statement that it “condemns the beliefs and actions of the Ku Klux Klan and believes the denial of this public assembly request is in the best interest of all parties.”

In denying the request, the association’s CEO Bill Stephens noted the park had to be closed on April 23, 2016 because of altercations between KKK members and counter-protestors.