RiseUp GA
10,000 signatures reached
To: Muhtar Kent, CEO and Board Chairman of the Coca-Cola Company
Coca-Cola: Stop Bankrolling White Supremacy. End Your Sponsorship of Stone Mountain Park.
There is no place for symbols of hate and division in our state, we the undersigned demand the Coca-Cola Company drop its sponsorship of Stone Mountain.
Why is this important?
UPDATE 8/22/15: Today activists from our team raised a large banner obscuring the mountain with the message “Heritage of Hate: Coke stop sponsoring racism” during a confederate rally in support of Stone Mountain and the confederate flag.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.colorofchange.org/images/CokeBanner400pxtall.JPG
On the evening of November 25, 1915, a group of 16 men clad in robes and hoods ascended to the top of Stone Mountain, the largest mass of exposed granite in the world, 15 miles east of Atlanta, Georgia. Once on top, the men ignited a flaming cross, signaling the second coming of the Ku Klux Klan, which had been dormant for 40 years. The events of that night set decades of white supremacist violence and terror by the KKK in motion, with Stone Mountain at the center.
One hundred years later, and the mountain has been transformed into Stone Mountain Park, Georgia’s number one tourist attraction. The park-- which draws an estimated 4 million visitors per year, and includes Coca-Cola as one of it’s biggest corporate sponsors-- features several confederate memorials, including a reconstructed Antebellum Plantation, a “Confederate Hall,” and a Civil War museum. The most famous and prominent attraction however is the face of the mountain itself, which is carved with the image of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis riding on horseback.
Work on the carving began in 1916, but was delayed for decades until the 1950s when the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum. Segregationists in Georgia hoped the monument would serve as a reminder of White Supremacy, and in 1958 the state of Georgia purchased the mountain for $2million, paving the way for the sculpture’s completion. It remains there today as a reminder of our state’s brutal history.
The recent spotlight on Confederate symbols across the south, combined with the growing backlash against the Movement for Black Lives, has made it clear that there is no place for symbols of hate and division on state property. By investing millions of dollars into the park through sponsorships, Coca-Cola is condoning the racism and hatred that these symbols represent to so many people.
Please join us in calling on Coca-Cola to stop funding racism in their home state by dropping their sponsorship of Stone Mountain Park.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.colorofchange.org/images/CokeBanner400pxtall.JPG
On the evening of November 25, 1915, a group of 16 men clad in robes and hoods ascended to the top of Stone Mountain, the largest mass of exposed granite in the world, 15 miles east of Atlanta, Georgia. Once on top, the men ignited a flaming cross, signaling the second coming of the Ku Klux Klan, which had been dormant for 40 years. The events of that night set decades of white supremacist violence and terror by the KKK in motion, with Stone Mountain at the center.
One hundred years later, and the mountain has been transformed into Stone Mountain Park, Georgia’s number one tourist attraction. The park-- which draws an estimated 4 million visitors per year, and includes Coca-Cola as one of it’s biggest corporate sponsors-- features several confederate memorials, including a reconstructed Antebellum Plantation, a “Confederate Hall,” and a Civil War museum. The most famous and prominent attraction however is the face of the mountain itself, which is carved with the image of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis riding on horseback.
Work on the carving began in 1916, but was delayed for decades until the 1950s when the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum. Segregationists in Georgia hoped the monument would serve as a reminder of White Supremacy, and in 1958 the state of Georgia purchased the mountain for $2million, paving the way for the sculpture’s completion. It remains there today as a reminder of our state’s brutal history.
The recent spotlight on Confederate symbols across the south, combined with the growing backlash against the Movement for Black Lives, has made it clear that there is no place for symbols of hate and division on state property. By investing millions of dollars into the park through sponsorships, Coca-Cola is condoning the racism and hatred that these symbols represent to so many people.
Please join us in calling on Coca-Cola to stop funding racism in their home state by dropping their sponsorship of Stone Mountain Park.
How it will be delivered
In person