Georgia’s governor has tapped Rev. Abraham Mosley as the new chairman of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association’s board of directors.
Stone Mountain is home to the world’s largest Confederate monument.
Mosley, who was “quietly” sworn in this week, is now the Black person to hold the position in the association’s 60+ year history.
“Reverend Abraham Mosley has dedicated his life to serving his community and our great state,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “After nearly 47 years of pastoring Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Athens, I appointed Reverend Mosley to the Stone Mountain Memorial Association in 2019, where he has been an active, passionate board member. With this expanded role, I am confident Reverend Mosley will continue to rely on his experience in bringing people together to lead the Stone Mountain Memorial Association.”
Mosley said he understands the challenges ahead.
“Certainly, there are mounting problems that have been brought before us. But we’ve got to handle them one at a time,” Mosley said per AJC. “We’ve got to be patient. I don’t want to be the man who prayed, ‘Lord, give me patience, but give it to me right now.'”
Stone Mountain, the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan, has Jefferson Davis’s face carved into the side of the mountain. It also includes monuments of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee as well as several other streets, buildings and flags that pay tribute to the Confederacy.
Advocacy group, The Stone Mountain Action Coalition, welcomed the new appointment.
“It is our hope,” the group said in an emailed statement, “that the appointment … is the first of many changes at this public park that will result in the immediate and complete removal of symbols, monuments, flags, street, place and building names, events and activities that honor and celebrate the Confederacy and the Ku Klux Klan.”
But with Kemp’s history, many are skeptical Mosley’s appointment is purely tokenistic and that Georgia’s proud display of its white supremacist roots will remain untouched.
