With a trend of removing memorials honoring Confederate leaders of the Civil War underway across the South, the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead is offering advice on preserving such artifacts with accurate historical context, ajc.com reports.
Rather than removing Confederate memorials, the center suggests presenting information on the “Lost Cause” myth, slavery and the positive and negative legacies of the Civil War.
I wonder if the Atlanta History Center might make a similar suggestion about providing some context outside new Mercedes Benz USA stadium or the proposed Mercedes Benz street in Sandy Springs. In 1990, a Georgia Tech history professor, Bernard Bellon, wrote a book entitled “Mercedes in Peace and War” which examined how the company benefited financially during two world wars, from their support for the Nazis and through the use of slave and concentration camp labor during WWII. Mercedes has certainly gone on to become a great car company, but if we are going to be tearing down Confederate memorials or providing historic context it might also make sense to add context somewhere on Mercedes Street in Sandy Springs or outside the new stadium in Atlanta. Just a thought.