Hey! Since I live five minutes (literally) from Stone Mountain Park, it's really easy for me to say that this landmark really defines my representation of the South. If you didn't know, Stone Mountain is not really a mountain, but a large piece of granite rock; however, more importantly, you should know the history of it in order to understand the South.
The most recognizable feature of the mountain is the sculpture of Confederate Memorial Carving, which depicts the three Confederate leaders of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson. This idea originally came from the organization of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), an association dedicated to honoring the memory of those who served and died in service to the Confederacy. The organization believed that there was no justice done to those Southerners who fought for what they believed them throughout the war. By 1915, the mountain gave birth to the second Klu Klux Klan, who used the site for Klan rallies. In 1924, the new Klan, which included many members of the UDC, were able to influence the federal government to issue special fifty-cent coins with Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall Jackson".
As seen through its history, those ideas that were the cause of the creation of Stone Mountain were not specific to one area, city or state, but instead those ideas reflect the ideas of the entire South. Just as the UDC created a memorial of Confederate Civil War heroes, the South, in general, still supported the ideas that the Confederacy fought for. Even today, many Southerners have so much respect for those Confederate leaders that it could compare to respect of those UDC members that influenced the special fifty-cent coins. The point I'm making is the history that Stone Mountain provides accurately portrays the ideas that existed in that time and even today. I hope that if you go to Stone Mountain, you will feel that you have somehow experienced the South.
