The flags of the Confederacy, including the battle flag, fly at Stone Mountain Park. A state representative, LaDawn Jones, has called for the public to boycott the state park until the flags are removed. 

STONE MOUNTAIN – Vincent Hockett glanced at the flags of the Confederacy as he jogged down the sloping side of Stone Mountain.

He stopped to snap a photo to share on social media. He wanted to pose a question to his friends, he said: Why are these flags – the Confederate battle flag in particular – flying here?

An Atlanta resident, Hockett regularly runs the one-mile path up the mountain at the state park, a popular exercise spot. While bearing a carved monument to the Confederacy, the mountain is also the place where the Ku Klux Klan famously reemerged in the early 20th Century.

“I would be lying if I said every time I’m here – every single time – I don’t stop, look at it and think about the connotations,” he said.

Hockett is among those who believe the flags should be removed from their prominent spot near the trailhead. But he stops short of supporting calls to boycott the park.

Rep. LaDawn Jones, D-Atlanta, is urging people to skip the park’s July Fourth festivities and steer clear of the grounds entirely until the battle flag and the three accompanying flags of the Confederate government are gone.

A shooting at a Bible study at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., which killed nine people, reignited her disdain for the Confederate battle flag and the places where it still flies, she said in a press release this week.

“The Charleston murderer and others like him are empowered every time they go somewhere where the state endorses the hateful message that the flag displays,” LaDawn said.

Dan Coleman, spokesman for the state’s chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said he believes LaDawn’s attempts to lead a boycott will have the reverse effect. Coleman says he’ll surely visit the park for the holiday.

“Maybe I’ll make up for a family that may not go,” he said.

The rally cry for a boycott comes in addition to a petition calling for the removal of the flags. It has garnered more than 1,000 signatures.

A representative of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association has indicated that the flags will not come down.

But opinions among park visitors – a culturally diverse crowd who sweat their way up, down and around the mountain – are mixed and represent the nuanced views of a long-smoldering debate that has intensified since the Charleston shooting.

“Happy it’s there,” said one visitor, a white man, of the flag.

Said another, who is black: “That motivates me every day I come here.”

Both men declined to give their names. They were just two of a steady stream of people who paused to photograph the flags as they whipped in the wind Thursday.

What seems largely left out of the conversation is a massive carving on the face of the rocky monadnock that depicts three figures central to the Confederacy – Gen. Robert E. Lee, President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Stonewall Jackson.

To Sara Garrett, a resident of Smyrna, the sculpture is overlooked because it doesn’t represent hate the way the Confederate flag does today.

If anything, she enjoys poking fun at the carving when she brings out-of-town guests.

“I’ll say, ‘Hey, look, it’s the three losers,’” said Garrett, who believes the flags and the carving are part of the heritage of the park and, therefore, belong there.

The sculpture – the largest of its kind in the world – is also protected by state law, which all but guarantees its place on the mountain in perpetuity.

The significance of the carving, which is larger than Mount Rushmore, has changed since it was dedicated in 1970. For many, the public artwork has become less about the men featured in the granite and more about the workers who dangled 33 stories above ground to bring the design to life.

Even a film played on a loop at the park describes the centerpiece as a monument to the men who carved it, whose work represents feats in art, technology and engineering.

That’s also how George White, an Atlanta resident who has been exercising at the park for more than 20 years, views the carving.

But the flags, he said, should go.

“It’s a burden on the soul,” said White, who is originally from Jamaica.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.