A group of mostly Black protesters gathered at Stone Mountain Park in Georgia on Saturday with guns, demanding a Confederate monument within it be removed while challenging white nationalists in the area to come out. The group, identifying themselves as the Not F**king Around Coalition, showed up with more than 100 armed protesters dressed in all black, according to 11Alive.
In a video posted to Twitter, one of the men leading the demonstration got down on his knees and called out white supremacists.
"I don't see no white militia, the boogie [boogaloo] boys, the three percenters and all the rest of these scared-a*s rednecks. We here, where the f**k you at? We're in your house," the armed protester said. "Let's go."
BREAKING – An armed Not Fucking Around Coalition (NFAC) militia in Stone Mountain, Georgia has called out all rednecks to face them on the field of battle.pic.twitter.com/xUPkcT6uqL
— Disclose.tv ???? (@disclosetv) July 4, 2020
Another video posted to Instagram shows the same protester describing the significance of Stone Mountain Park.
"This is the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan," the man said. "This is where they were born after they were destroyed."
The protester then talked about the KKK's connection to various departments in the country.
"Everything you have been seeing — the police, discrimination in housing, a f**ked up education, f**ked up banking system, f**ked up politics — are all tied to the KKK," he said. "If you don't believe that, you don't know s**t about this country."
According to Newsweek, the leader of NFAC identifies himself as the Official Grand Master Jay on social media.
"We will not allow the murder of another Black person, whether it be by white people or Black people," the leader said. "I am not f**king around."
Police eventually escorted the protesters out of the park, 11Alive reported. John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, said there was no problem with the demonstration.
"It's a public park, a state park. We have these protests on both sides of the issue from time to time. We respect people's First Amendment right," Bankhead told 11Alive. "We understand the sensitivities of the issue here at the park and the dark past so we respect that and allow them to come in as long as it's peaceful, which it has been."
According to ABC News, the monument at Stone Mountain Park features a sculpture of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, making it the largest Confederate monument in the country.
DeKalb County’s NAACP branch also organized a protest at the park last week to demand the Confederate monument come down, KIRO7 reported.
“We’re going to Stone Mountain where all of the white supremacy, racial bigotry, all of that is hidden in that mountain, so why not march there to let them know we’re not going to take it any more,” branch President Teresa Hardy told the news station.
According to KIRO7, the monument is protected under Georgia law, meaning it can only be removed with a repeal of that state law.
The park is historically known as a gathering place for white supremacists, but the city of Stone Mountain is now predominantly Black, ABC News reported.
The park's Fourth of July laser and fireworks shows were canceled this year because of COVID-19. Bankhead said the entrances to the park were closed and no one else was admitted during the demonstration on July 4.
