A group of heavily armed Black protesters marched through Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta on Saturday, MTO News has learned. Te protesters, who are calling themselves “Black Panthers” are calling for removal of the giant Confederate rock carving at the site that civil rights activists consider a monument to racism.
Video footage of the July 4th rally went viral on social media. The videos showed demonstrators dressed in black and wearing paramilitary-style clothing marching in military formation, down a sidewalk at the park.
The protesters all carried rifles and some wore ammunition belts slung over their shoulders.
One video clip showed a leader of the demonstrators, who was not identified, shouting into a loudspeaker in a challenge to white supremacists who historically have used Stone Mountain as a rallying spot of their own.
Here’s video of the incident:
MTO News contacted the park for comment., and John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, told us that the protesters were “peaceful and orderly.”