Stone Mountain, Georgia —
Jean Shifrin was hiking up a steep mountain trail on the Fourth of July when she was startled by something approaching her from behind.
“What in the world is going on here?” she wondered as she squinted in the morning sun at what was coming.
It was a White man and two Black men marching an 8-foot wooden cross up the slippery slope. One of the Black men, built like a linebacker, led the way. He balanced the head of the cross on his left shoulder while barking in a drill sergeant’s baritone, “Yessir! Yessir!”
The White man, his sinewy, tattooed arms already beet-red from the sun, shouldered the cross from the center beam. Another stout Black man brought up the rear. They were trailed by a cheering entourage, including a boy carrying a Bible and a middle-aged Chinese woman who kept shouting “Jiayou!,” or “Keep going!” in Mandarin.
