Confederate heritage group, counterprotesters face off at Stone Mountain – By Chris Joyner & Matt Bruce (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) / April 30, 2022
About 200 members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans gathered at Stone Mountain on Saturday for an observation of Confederate Memorial Day, despite calls for the state-owned park to shut them down.
Instead, a little more than 100 counterprotesters descended down the wide lawn in front of the mountain’s gigantic bas relief carving of Confederate leaders, shouting and jeering, forcing the SCV speakers to struggle to be heard over the din.
“These protesters are against our Christian faith. They are anti-Christ,” SCV member Kenneth Buggay said in a fiery closing prayer shouted over a chorus of boos from the counterprotesters about 50 yards away. “We have been fighting this war since 1861. We will be victorious.”
The Confederate rally has been the target of controversy since the Stone Mountain Memorial Association approved the SCV’s permit application in March. The mountain and surrounding park are enshrined in state law as a memorial to the failed Confederacy despite having no direct connection to the Civil War.
