August of 2017, the Klan was denied a permit for a mountaintop cross-burning. Fundraising for the monument resumed in 1923. The influence of the UDC continued, in support of Mrs. Plane's vision of a carving explicitly for the purpose of creating a Confederate memorial. She suggested in a letter to the first sculptor, Gutzon Borglum: The UDC established the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial Association (SMCMA) for fundraising and on-site supervision of the project. Venable and Borglum, both closely associated with the Klan, arranged to pack the SMCMA with Klan members. The SMCMA, along with the United Daughters of the Confederacy, continued fundraising efforts. Of the $250,000 raised, part came from the federal government, which in 1925 issued commemorative fifty-cent coins with the soldiers Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on them. The image on the verso of the coin was based on The Last Meeting of Lee and Jackson, executed in 1869 by Everett B. D. Fabrino Julio (American, b. St. Helena 1843–1879, emigrated to the U.S. 1860), itself an icon of Lost Cause mythology; it is now in the American Civil War Museum (until 2012 the Museum of the Confederacy). When the state completed the purchase in 1960, it condemned the property to void Venable's agreement to allow the Klan perpetual right to hold meetings on the premises. Proposed removal of the carving After the Charleston church shooting in mid-2015, Stone Mountain was the subject of a political debate related to the removal of symbols of the Confederacy. This controversy was stimulated by a movement in other states to remove the Confederate battle flag and statues of Confederate leaders from public areas. In July 2015, the Atlanta NAACP proposed removing the Confederate carving from Stone Mountain Park. However, this would require the approval of the Georgia Legislature, as would any change to a "military monument" in the state. On October 11, 2015, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the park was considering a proposal of a permanent "Freedom Bell" honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and the line "Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia", from King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. The proposed monument is inspired by a bell-ringing ceremony held in 2013 honoring the 50th anniversary of King's speech. It is not supported by the NAACP or King-founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who want the Confederate symbols removed rather than a King symbol added. Advance Local reported