Stone Mountain braces for neo-confederate rally

Residents in the City of Stone Mountain are bracing for the annual Confederate Memorial Day rally organized by the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) in front of the world’s largest Confederate monument at Stone Mountain Park April 19. The gathering draws hundreds of neo-Confederate revelers who travel from around the country each year to don Confederate garb and listen to white nationalist speakers.

On the park’s western boundary sits the City of Stone Mountain. The small, suburban town of about 6,000 people has a troubled history as the birthplace and former headquarters of the modern Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Nevertheless, a sizable Black community has endured in Stone Mountain since the 1860s, representing over 70% of the city’s population today.

The annual “Confederate Memorial Day” rally is the most overt remnant of the area’s KKK past. “It’s inflammatory, dangerous, and provocative,” said former City Councilmember Clint Monroe. “Anyone who doesn’t understand that should re-examine their own attitudes.”

“I’m sick of this,” said Grace, a lifelong resident of Stone Mountain who did not want to give her full name for fear of retaliation by the far-right. “I’ve been watching this happen every year.”

Grace recalled a violent confrontation between neo-Confederate demonstrators and anti-racist counter-protestors in 2020. “There were fist fights breaking out everywhere, and there were a lot of guns,” she said. “I looked outside my window and saw a person vomiting in my yard. They had just been sprayed in the face with insecticide by someone wearing a Confederate flag.” 

Monroe worries about the cost of such clashes to the city. “Our police department will incur significant overtime to protect white supremacists who don’t live here, and their Confederate symbols, and the hatred they represent,” he said.

Who are the Sons of Confederate Veterans?

SCV is a neo-Confederate and white nationalist umbrella group that uses Civil War symbology to attract white men to extreme far-right politics. The SCV officially denies having connections to extremist groups, yet maintains longstanding relationships with violent white supremacist organizations and individuals.

This year’s Confederate Memorial Day keynote address will be delivered by Walter “Donnie” Kennedy, the author of an influential neo-Confederate text that defends slavery. He is also a founding member of the League of the South, which gained notoriety for being part of the neo-Nazi Nationalist Front and the deadly “Unite the Right” riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the League of the South as a hate group. 

Kennedy, however, is not the only  SCV member with ties to extremism.

Martin O’Toole is the SCV’s official Georgia spokesperson and has been involved in racist organizing for over 50 years, according to a recent investigation by Atlanta Antifascists. In a 1972 profile by a student newspaper at the University of Georgia, O’Toole  self-identified as a “racist.”  He is also a Holocaust denier with alleged past connections to neo-Nazis and Klansmen, and is the former president of the Charles Martel Society, a white nationalist organization. 

David Aderhold is a retired DeKalb County law enforcement officer and a member of the SCV’s “Mechanized Cavalry” motorcycle club, organized by some of the organization’s most far-right members, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The club’s motto is “Ride as you would with Forrest,” referring to KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest. In 1994, a woman in DeKalb County witnessed then-Deputy Aderhold shoot and kill her fiancée, Wesley Hill, a 22-year-old Black man. Hill was allegedly “handcuffed and kneeling when … Deputy Aderhold shoot him in the back, point-blank,” according to a Human Rights Watch report. Aderhold was not charged for the killing. Today, a Barrow County police training center is named after Aderhold. 

Sons of Confederate Veterans’ influence on local politics

Neither O’Toole nor Aderhold lives in the City of Stone Mountain, nor do most of the people who have historically attended Confederate Memorial Day events in Stone Mountain. Nevertheless, SCV members from across the U.S. maintain an interest in Stone Mountain’s municipal politics, frequently lobbying local politicians and community organizations to support Confederate monuments in this majority-Black municipality. Their strategy has been effective, and the SCV has cultivated several influential allies.

City Councilmember Teresa Crowe, for example, has repeatedly spoken in favor of preserving Confederate monuments. In 2023, Crowe voted against removing the Confederate flag from the city’s cemetery, which prominently displays numerous controversial and historically inaccurate Confederate monuments, most of which were installed by the SCV. Crowe was also recently challenged by residents over her role in a controversial plan to develop tourism around the same cemetery.

Akilah Callahan, a frequent attendee of Stone Mountain City Council meetings, recalled a June 6, 2023, meeting in which Teresa Crowe was seen conversing with Martin O’Toole. A video recording of the meeting also shows Teresa Crowe delivering documents to the desks of other city council members, which were handed to her by the DeKalb County SCV Commander Michael McConnell. Clint Monroe also remembers that meeting. “O’Toole himself threatened to sue the city if we dare interfere with any Confederate symbols here,” Monroe said. “He comes to our house, and threatens us in our own house!”

During the March 18 City Council meeting, a Stone Mountain funeral home owner complained that her business had been the subject of harassment by Teresa Crowe’s husband, John Crowe. The funeral home is Black-owned, and the proprietor said she is so afraid of the Crowes that she carries a firearm with her while she’s working. “In this climate, we don’t know about racist white people and how they will react,” she said. 

Community Rejects Neo-Confederacy

Residents of Stone Mountain, from city council members and local business owners to ordinary residents, hope that their town can become known for something other than Confederate tourism. 

“The Confederacy doesn’t have a place in this community anymore,” said local business owner, Modibo Kadalie. “They are a historical relic, and they should be consigned to the junkheaps of history.”

Sherman Neal II, a former U.S. Marine and parent of two young children, is a member of the anti-racist activist group Stone Mountain Action Coalition. He expressed a sense of responsibility to future generations and said Stone Mountain Park should stop granting permits for Confederate Memorial Day. 

“When we don’t stop the harm that comes with celebrating white supremacy in our own backyards,” Neal said, “we pass that burden onto our children, and they don’t deserve that.”

Lifelong resident Grace shares these concerns and points to the economic impact of Stone Mountain’s close association with racist organizations.

“People ask why Stone Mountain can’t grow economically, but I think the answer is glaringly obvious,” said Grace. “Having all of these Confederate symbols casually spread around the neighborhood is doing real harm because it makes these violent groups feel welcome and frightens visitors to our town. We can’t move forward without healing, and we can’t heal if we continue to invite more trauma.”