Civil rights groups and activists have denounced “Soul Fest,” a concert series featuring Black performers, for its questionable choice of setting.
The event is being held at Stone Mountain Park just outside of Atlanta. It happens to be the same park where the Ku Klux Klan marked its rebirth in 1915, and features the largest Confederate monument ever created—a giant mountainside sculpture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.The park has made recent efforts to distance itself from its status as a Confederate shrine amid drops in revenue.
Atlanta NCAAP President Richard Rose said he saw it as a way to “normalize and sanitize” the park’s hateful history.on Thursday.“It’s an effort to pretend that the park is for everyone while still maintaining this massive symbol of white supremacy,” she said, calling it a “bad faith effort” to downplay the park’s Confederate ties.
Rose said he urged some of the participating bands to drop “Soul Fest,” to no avail. He said they told him they were under contract, and that their music brings people together.