Lesson Plan

  • Grades 6-8,
  • Grades 9-10,
  • Grades 11-12

Stone Mountain and Historical Memory: Who Defines the Past?

Lesson Details

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Describe what a monument is and its social and political functions
  • Define “historical memory” and explain how it is influenced by familial, cultural/religious and national/state memories
  • Examine how historical memory influences the ongoing controversy over Stone Mountain and the power dynamics that shape our public space
  • Apply their understanding of historical memory to a monument in their own community to analyze and contextualize its significance

GRADE LEVELS: 8-12+

SUBJECT AREAS

  • Social Studies
  • American History
  • Civil Rights
  • English Language Arts

MATERIALS

ESTIMATED TIME NEEDED

One-two 50-minute class periods, with take-home assignment

PREPARATION

Viewing and discussing sensitive material:

This lesson and the accompanying film address sensitive social issues and teachers should

screen the film and review all of the related materials prior to implementing it. Some of your students may have been personally affected by these issues and their perspectives and sensitivities should inform how the lesson is presented. In advance of the lesson, it would be helpful to connect with a school social worker for resources specific to your school community’s needs and guidelines.

Remind the class that this is a supportive environment and review your classroom’s tools for creating a safe-space, including class agreements. These might include guidelines like “no name-calling,” “no interrupting,” “listen without judgment,” “use respectful language,” “share to your level of comfort,” “you have the right to pass,” etc. And remind students that when they talk about groups of people, they should be careful to use the word “some,” not “all.”

Here are Teaching Tolerance’s tips for teaching about controversial monuments:

  • DO promote open discussion.
  • DON’T ignore connections to hate and oppression.
  • DO examine monuments in the context of today’s society.
  • DON’T push students to make a final judgment.

Visit Teaching Tolerance for additional resources and strategies for tackling challenging topics in the classroom:

Some 300 million years ago, an eruption of magma produced the massive granite rock that is known today as Stone Mountain in Georgia. Humans first stepped foot on this remarkable landmark around 4,000 B.C.E. and have continued to gather at its summit for more than six millennia. In 1915, one such gathering took place that would alter Stone Mountain in the eyes of Georgians and the world.

At midnight on November 25, 1915, a dozen white supremacists climbed to the top of Stone Mountain and burned a cross, inspired by the D.W. Griffith’s propaganda film The Birth of a Nation. This marked the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, a violent terror group that grew to a membership of more than 4 million in 10 years, and cemented Stone Mountain’s link with that group. The brothers who owned the mountain, the 85 year-old president of the Atlanta United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Klan-sympathizing sculptor Gutzon Borglum (who would go on to carve Mount Rushmore) then launched their plan to etch three Confederate generals into the mountain’s façade. In 1972 the carving was completed, transforming Stone Mountain into the world’s largest Confederate memorial and celebration of American white supremacy.

“Stone Mountain allows for a full century’s worth of reckoning with the motivations and politics behind these celebrations of the Confederacy and the Lost Cause narrative,” says Sierra Pettengill, director of the film, Graven Image. “In my film, a voiceover from a 1972 Stone Mountain promotional film says, ‘Remember how it used to be? It’s still that way for you to enjoy at Stone Mountain Park.’ I want this film to make us remember how it actually used to be.”

Recent conflicts over resurgent white nationalism and its links to Confederate monuments in public spaces have prompted conversations about the role of history in our national identity. These debates are an opportunity to critically examine our historical memory and to reevaluate our cultural symbols, like monuments, as our nation’s values and priorities evolve.

In this lesson, students use the short film Graven Image to explore the meaning and function of monuments, analyze the role collective historical memory plays in shaping our identities, and engage with monuments in their own communities to better understand the power dynamics that shape public spaces.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Describe what a monument is and its social and political functions
  • Define “historical memory” and explain how it is influenced by familial, cultural/religious and national/state memories
  • Examine how historical memory influences the ongoing controversy over Stone Mountain and the power dynamics that shape our public space
  • Apply their understanding of historical memory to a monument in their own community to analyze and contextualize its significance

GRADE LEVELS: 8-12+

SUBJECT AREAS

  • Social Studies
  • American History
  • Civil Rights
  • English Language Arts

MATERIALS

ESTIMATED TIME NEEDED

One-two 50-minute class periods, with take-home assignment

PREPARATION

Viewing and discussing sensitive material:

This lesson and the accompanying film address sensitive social issues and teachers should

screen the film and review all of the related materials prior to implementing it. Some of your students may have been personally affected by these issues and their perspectives and sensitivities should inform how the lesson is presented. In advance of the lesson, it would be helpful to connect with a school social worker for resources specific to your school community’s needs and guidelines.

Remind the class that this is a supportive environment and review your classroom’s tools for creating a safe-space, including class agreements. These might include guidelines like “no name-calling,” “no interrupting,” “listen without judgment,” “use respectful language,” “share to your level of comfort,” “you have the right to pass,” etc. And remind students that when they talk about groups of people, they should be careful to use the word “some,” not “all.”

Here are Teaching Tolerance’s tips for teaching about controversial monuments:

  • DO promote open discussion.
  • DON’T ignore connections to hate and oppression.
  • DO examine monuments in the context of today’s society.
  • DON’T push students to make a final judgment.

Visit Teaching Tolerance for additional resources and strategies for tackling challenging topics in the classroom:

Do Now: What is a monument?

Think-Pair-Share:

Give students 3-5 minutes to list as many examples of monuments as they can.

Have them review their responses with a partner, analyze the similarities and differences, and identify the qualities that define a monument.

Use the following resources to enhance the discussion as needed:

Discuss:

  • What is the purpose of monuments?
  • Is there a difference between a monument and a memorial? Between a monument and a landmark? Please explain. Resource to support this discussion:
  • Why do we create monuments?
  • Who decides who or what is memorialized in a monument?
  • Do monuments document history? Whose history? What impact do monuments have on the public’s understanding of history?
  • How do monuments convey certain values to a community? What’s the significance of the fact that a monument is publicly funded and in a public space?

Graven Image:

Distribute Student Handout A: Film Notes and introduce the film, Graven Image. You may want to provide a brief introduction to the Stone Mountain monument by showing a photo of it and describing the generals it depicts. Play the film once asking students to pay close attention. Then instruct students to review the handout and take notes while watching the film a second time.

Organize students into small discussion groups and have them begin by reviewing their own questions about the film. Distribute Student Handout B: Group Discussion and the Smithsonian article “What Will Happen to Stone Mountain, America’s Largest Confederate Memorial?” to each student. Students can read the article silently or the group can take turns reading sections aloud, then discuss the article and film using the prompts in Handout B.

Following the group discussions, reconvene the class and reflect:

  • What was the intended purpose of the Stone Mountain monument? What impact did the creators want the carving to have on Georgia’s citizens?
  • The carving at Stone Mountain is often referred to as a “historical monument”. Is the monument making an argument about history? If so, what do you think it is and whose perspective does it represent? What values and assumptions underlie that historical narrative?
  • How has the significance of the memorial varied for different groups? (For example: white Georgians, African American Georgians, visitors from Southern states, visitors from Northern states, foreign visitors, etc.) Has the message or meaning changed over time?
    • Why was Stone Mountain significant to the Ku Klux Klan? What role has the KKK played in the history of the Stone Mountain Monument?
    • Why do you think Martin Luther King Jr. included Stone Mountain in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963?
    • What inspired the state of Georgia to resume work on the monument in 1958? (What was happening in the U.S. at that time?)
    • The State of Georgia officially opened Stone Mountain Park on April 14, 1965. Why is this date significant? What message was being sent to park visitors? (April 14, 1965 was the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
  • What role do monuments play in our understanding of history? Are monuments reminders of historic facts or propaganda (or both)?
  • What is the significance of the fact that the Stone Mountain memorial is explicitly protected by Georgia state law? How can governments perpetuate certain historical narratives?

Historical Memory

Introduce the following quotes and have students rewrite one of them in their own words. Discuss how this idea connects with our exploration of monuments.


We are what we remember, and as memories are reconfigured, identities are redefined.

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, historian

What is called collective memory is not a remembering but a stipulating: that this is important, and this is the story about how it happened, with the pictures that lock the story in our minds.

Susan Sontag, philosopher and writer

What is historical memory? Ask students if they are familiar with the term “historical memory” and/or if a volunteer could share what they think it means.

Optional: Share the following videos about historical memory from Brown University’s Choices Program:

“What is historical memory?” The Choices Program Brown University (3:13 mins)

“What is the difference between history and memory?” The Choices Program Brown University (2:03 mins)

Review: Historical memory refers to the way that groups of people create and identify with specific narratives about past periods or events. Distribute Student Handout C: Historical Memory. Have volunteers read the below description of historical memory.

Historical memory is sometimes also called collective memory or social memory and is comprised of several types of memory:

  • Familial memory: memories of personal experiences that families and communities pass down to their descendants.
  • Cultural/religious memory: a group’s common account of the past that is informed by shared belief systems, norms and traditions. (This often overlaps with familial memory.)
  • National/state memory: the official narratives sanctioned by the government, which are shaped by the values and priorities of dominant groups, including people in positions of power. It can be transmitted through education, politics, media and public cultural resources.

As Jacquelyn Hall’s quote discusses, historical memory shapes the identities of people in societies and can change as cultural values and social hierarchies evolve.

Organize students in small groups and distribute a copy of Student Handout D: Historical Memory & Stone Mountain with the idea web graphic organizers to each group. Have groups search for and read articles that illustrate the arguments made for and against removing the Stone Mountain monument and other Confederate symbols in the state. (Note: Groups can draw their idea webs on large pieces of chart paper instead of using the handout.)

Suggested articles:

Instruct the groups to brainstorm and list the experiences, identities, traditions, norms, values, biases, and beliefs that shaped the historical memories of both groups: the opponents of and the advocates for the Stone Mountain monument. (For example: familial memory = “ancestors were Confederate soldiers” and/or “grandparents participated in civil rights protests.”)

Complete the activity with a silent gallery walk and class discussion:

  • What is the role of historical memory in the dispute over Stone Mountain? Describe the most significant aspects of the historical memory represented by the Stone Mountain memorial. What are some of the beliefs, values and identities embedded in the monument?
  • What are some of the alternative historical memories that challenge those represented by Confederate monuments like Stone Mountain? What/whom do different groups believe should (or should not) be commemorated about the Civil War period?
    • What are major sources of tension and disagreement in this controversy?
    • What were some similarities and differences in how each group formed historical memories (including the relative role of each collective memory type)?
    • How do monuments shape and reinforce one historical narrative over another?
  • Who gets to decide how history is remembered? What does the Stone Mountain monument tell us about the role of power in the creation and perpetuation of historical memory?
    • In what ways does each side of the Stone Mountain debate hold power to influence historical narratives today?
  • Is it possible to revise or change our historical memory? How? (Consider the role of media, education, government, etc.) Who has the right to revise/change historic narratives? Why or why not? Does this change over time?
  • How are monuments used in the present to support certain cultural attitudes or policy positions?
  • What do you think should happen when a monument’s meaning or message:
    • no longer reflects the values of the society?
    • celebrates inequality or oppression?
  • What monument should be there today?

Adapted/excerpted from Study.com: What is Historical Memory? - Biases & Examples

Take-Home Project: Our Monumental History

Have students select a monument in their community and explore its historical context, purpose, and significance using Student Handout E: Our Monumental History as a guide. Students can select monuments from any era, but if they are interested in focusing on Confederate monuments, have them visit the Southern Poverty Law Center’s interactive map “Whose Heritage? A Report on Public Symbols of the Confederacy”.

For their research, encourage students to engage with a variety of primary and secondary resources, including newspaper archives, artifacts, written correspondence, Internet/library research, and oral history interviews with members of the community.

Have students use their research to design a plaque that “contextualizes” the statue by providing a historical narrative about the period it represents, the time it was commissioned and its significance today.

Note: For additional information on the “contextualization” movement see the New York Times article, “Ole Miss Edges Out of Its Confederate Shadow, Gingerly” by Stephanie Saul from August 9, 2017.

Completed projects should include the “contextualization” plaque and a multimedia presentation on the monument, the historical memory it represents, and what it means today to different stakeholders in the community. The projects can be multi-media presentations or short films in the style of Graven Image. Students should link their presentations to the monument location on Google maps.

Reflection/Homework

Students should write a response to one of the following prompts:

  • How should we decide what or whom we memorialize in monuments? What process could we use to ensure our public monuments are inclusive and reflective of the values of the whole community?
  • How should we deal with monuments that represent ideologies that are divisive, oppressive, or run contrary to contemporary values? Is adding contextualizing plaques enough (why or why not)? What’s your position in the controversy surrounding the Stone Mountain Monument? Would you remove the carving? Would you change the context of the monument in some way by altering the carving or adding additional carvings? Other ideas include installing a memorial to an African American civil rights leader on top, or providing more nuanced and accurate information about the figures it represents.
  • Are monuments a good idea? Why or why not? What are the benefits and disadvantages of monuments and should we continue to make them?

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

During the period between the Civil War and World War II, thousands of African Americans were lynched in the United States. Lynchings were violent and public acts of torture that traumatized black people throughout the country and were largely tolerated by state and federal officials. These lynchings were terrorism. ‘Terror lynchings’ peaked between 1880 and 1940 and claimed the lives of African American men, women, and children who were forced to endure the fear, humiliation, and barbarity of this widespread phenomenon unaided.

Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror (Third Edition). Equal Justice Initiative, 2018.

Introduce students to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in Montgomery, Alabama in 2018. Explain that this is the nation's first national memorial to victims of lynching, and that it contains the names of over 4,000 lynching victims engraved on columns representing each county in the United States where racial terror lynchings took place.

Have students:

  • Read the Lynching in America report by the Equal Justice Initiative with a focus on the seven Key Findings that emerged through EJI’s research
  • Introduce activities from “Lesson 2.3: Memorials and Monuments” in the Lynching in America lesson plan
  • Analyze the purpose and reception of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. How does the memorial challenge or support the historical narratives that students are familiar with about this period/issue? How do they think the dominant “historical memory” of lynching has shaped the values of the public and has lent support to certain cultural and political positions throughout history? What was the motivation for the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and what was its public reception—locally and nationally? Compare and contrast it with the Stone Mountain memorial and other Confederate monuments.
  • Visit the interactive map on the Lynching in America website and learn about the history of lynching in their state or region of the country
  • Find out how to participate in EJI’s efforts to collaborate with counties across the country to install memorial columns with the names of lynching victims in their communities

Resources:

Monumentally Missing

Are there events, individuals or communal experiences in U.S. history that should be memorialized in a public monument but aren't? The contentious disputes about Confederate monuments have opened up a larger conversation about Americans’ national identity and how we remember our past. Although challenging, these debates are a tremendous opportunity to re-imagine how we use our public spaces. In this activity, students will develop an idea for a “Missing Monument” that reveals hidden histories, amplifies marginalized voices and presents the public with new perspectives.

Introduce the class to Monument Lab: A Public Art and History Project led by artists Paul M. Farber and Ken Lum and produced with Mural Arts Philadelphia.

Explain: The mission of Monument Lab is “to critically engage monuments we have inherited and unearth the next generation of monuments through stories of social justice and solidarity.”

Play the video, An Introduction to Monument Lab and/or share the City Lab article, “What I Learned in the Monument Wars.”

Have students review the Monument Lab “Report to the City”, and prepare a proposal for their Missing Monuments using the Monument Lab form and process to guide the development of their ideas. Have students contact the Monument Lab project and request feedback on their monument ideas.

Resources:

History Onscreen: Stone Mountain Commercial

Have students re-watch the excerpt from the commercial for Stone Mountain Park once or twice (Graven Image 8:14-9:11). Give them five minutes to free-write in response to the following questions:

  • What mood does the commercial evoke? (Consider: music, narration, scenery.)
  • What phrases stand out to you?
  • What images stand out to you?

Separate students into groups and ask them to discuss the historical memory of antebellum plantation life represented in the commercial. Compare that with their own historical memory. What did the Stone Mountain commercial leave out, and what did it include? (Consider: facts, emotions, interpersonal relationships.)

What kinds of cultural assumptions and political/social values are supported by this commercial’s representation of history? For example, what was your reaction to watching the woman cooking cornbread while the narrator intoned that Stone Mountain “turns the clock back to bygone ways…Remember how it used to be? It’s still that way at Stone Mountain.” How might people of color respond to this idealized version of the past? What is the power of historical reenactments and audio/visual representations to influence historical memory?

Introduce the phenomenon W. E. B. Du Bois called the “propaganda of history.”[1] How is the Stone Mountain commercial an example of the propaganda of history? How do the images and techniques the filmmaker used in Graven Image respond to and critique that propaganda? Ask students to brainstorm media representations they have encountered that have shaped their historical memory—how would they revisit these media with a critical eye for the assumptions and values they perpetuate? Consider: books, movies, television series, games, etc.

Ask students to imagine they’re commercial directors who have been approached by the Stone Mountain park organizers to reshoot the ad. Students should outline and pitch their own version of the commercial. What would they do differently? Students should consider images, narration language and tone, use of archival footage, reenactments, and focus. How could a new commercial help shift the historical memory that Stone Mountain perpetuates?

The Propaganda of History

It is propaganda like this that has led men in the past to insist that history is ‘lies agreed upon’; and to point out the danger in such misinformation. It is indeed extremely doubtful if any permanent benefit comes to the world through such action.

W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880 (Free Press, 1999), 711–714.

W. E. B. Du Bois was born in Massachusetts in 1868 and became one of the nation’s most influential civil rights activists, scholars, sociologists, educators, historians, writers and poets. Du Bois was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and went on to co-found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1903.

In 1935, Du Bois published the influential book Black Reconstruction in America. How did Du Bois understand and approach the history of Reconstruction differently than other historians of his time? Why did he think that work was important to do?

Introduce the lesson, “ ‘Why Reconstruction Matters’ and ‘Black Reconstruction in America,’” from The New York Times Learning Network. The lesson pairs Eric Foner’s New York Times op-ed essay, “Why Reconstruction Matters”, with “The Propaganda of History,” an excerpt from Black Reconstruction in America. Both examine how biased historiography from the early 20th century helped to perpetuate injustice for generations of African Americans.

RESOURCES

POV: Graven Image

Stream the film on POV’s official film site.

Graven Image

The film’s official website provides more information on the film and filmmakers.

POV: Media Literacy Questions for Analyzing POV Films

This list of questions provides a useful starting point for leading rich discussions that challenge students to think critically about documentaries.

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)

The organization that runs The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Equal Justice Initiative. Their mission is to end mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States for the most vulnerable people in American society.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

The official website for the Memorial with multi-media resources on the project

Lynching in America

Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror provides an interactive, multi-platform resource on the brutal wave of lynchings that terrorized Black Americans from Reconstruction through World War II including standards-aligned lesson plans on the legacy of lynching in the United States.

Monument Lab

Website for the national public art and history project based in Philadelphia that features past and current projects, program resources, and the Monument Lab Podcast.

Whose Heritage? A Report on Public Symbols of the Confederacy

An interactive web project of the Southern Poverty Law Center that provides a comprehensive map of Confederate monuments and symbols in public spaces across the U.S. as well as lesson plans and educator resources.

ACLU of Georgia

The Atlanta-based ACLU of Georgia is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the civil liberties enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

STANDARDS

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects (http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf)

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.8
Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claims.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.8
Evaluate an author's premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.9
Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9
Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

Production and Distribution of Writing:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.7
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.7
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.8
Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.8
Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the specific task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.

Content Knowledge: (http://www2.mcrel.org/compendium/) a compilation of content standards and benchmarks for K-12 curriculum by McREL (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning).

United States History

Standard 15. Understands how various reconstruction plans succeeded or failed

Thinking and Reasoning

Standard 1. Understands and applies the basic principles of presenting an argument

Standard 2. Understands and applies basic principles of logic and reasoning

Standard 3. Effectively uses mental processes that are based on identifying similarities and differences

National Center for History in the Schools

United States History Content Standards

United States Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

Standard 3A: The student understands the political controversy over Reconstruction.

This lesson was reviewed by Dr. Magdalena Gross, Senior Research Associate at CSET, Stanford University.

About the authors

Allison Milewski

Allison Milewski has developed media education resources for a range of award-winning filmmakers and national media organizations, including PBS LearningMedia, Independent Television Services (ITVS), Latino Public Broadcasting, HBO Documentaries, and Tribeca Film Institute. She is also the founder of the international media education program, PhotoForward.org.

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