Attention Wal-Mart shoppers - Confederate statue in logo causes stir

Benton County Daily Record ^ | 10/14 | Stacey Roberts

[shuckmaster]

BENTONVILLE — Two of the most readily recognizable images associated with Bentonville cannot be used together to promote the Main Street Bentonville organization, according to a report presented to the Main Street board Monday.

Board member Tom McCoy has been working on developing a new logo for Main Street Bentonville to be used on letterhead and other promotional documents, but hit a wall when two items that say "Bentonville" to most people were determined to be unusable together: The Wal-Mart Visitors’ Center on the Square and the Confederate memorial statue that stands guard on the center of that Square. "Wal-Mart is uneasy about anything incorporating the statue with them," McCoy said. His committee has tried removing the statue from the prototype logo they were working with, but the logo lost a lot of detail and was too nondescript, he said. "I think if you leave out the statue, you leave out the Square. …," Coberly said. "The Five and Dime is located right across from that statue, I don’t understand the problem." Her term Five and Dime refers to the Visitors’ Center front that mimics Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton’s Ben Franklin store. "We had the statue in both previous versions because we felt the statue was the most easily recognizable element representing Bentonville," said McCoy, a retired Wal-Mart executive.

Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Ed Clifford, also a retired Wal-Mart executive, suggested the Visitors ’ Center be eliminated from the logo consideration. "Could you just reverse the process and use the statue and the courthouse?" he asked. The Courthouse sits on the east side of the square, behind the statue, while the Visitors Center is in front of the statue.

The statue is a sculpture of a Confederate soldier whose head is modeled after the 14 th Governor of Arkansas, James H. Berry, according to a promotional booklet printed by the Bentonville Advertising and Promotion Commission. Berry, a resident of Bentonville, was a U.S. senator for 22 years. Berry was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 16 th Arkansas Infantry and lost his right leg in the Battle of Corinth, Miss.

The memorial statue was donated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group that no longer has a local chapter, according to the national organization’s Web site. It was dedicated Aug. 8, 1908, on the site it still occupies on the Square. The land the memorial sits on is listed with the Benton County Tax Assessor’s office as being owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The only address listed for the group is the Square where the statue stands. The property is tax exempt, according to the Tax Assessor’s Office.

The last existing United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter in Northwest Arkansas is in Prairie Grove, according to that chapter’s registrar, Donna Schweider. The Bentonville chapter, the James H. Berry chapter, no longer exists, she said. "I can see where (Wal-Mart) might not want to be associated with it," Schweider said. She said Wal-Mart had similar problems with a barbecue sauce manufacturer in South Carolina in 2000.

According to an Associated Press story at that time, Wal-Mart removed the sauce from Sam’s Clubs in six Southern states after visiting the restaurants of vendor Maurice Bessinger in Columbia, S. C. Bessinger displayed Confederate flags in his restaurants, according to a customer complaint. After seeing a tract inside the restaurant that offered a justification for slavery, Wal-Mart spokesman Jay Allen was quoted as saying the company was not comfortable with some of the things Bessinger was selling. "This has nothing to do with the Confederate flag," Allen was quoted. "We are the largest employer of Hispanics and African-Americans in the U.S."

Voice mail messages to Wal-Mart’s Corporate Communications department were not returned Monday.

[shuckmaster]

Aw, Shucks!

[shuckmaster]

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[sandydipper]

God forbid us from doing anything not politically correct - it could effect sales. Wal-Mart sucks.

[reelfoot]

I stopped shopping at Walmart when they quit selling Maurice's Bar B Q sauce after a boycott threat by the NAACP.

[stainlessbanner]

The 2000 controversy did two things for me: I started buying Maurice's and I quit shopping at Wal-Mart.
They never answered my question about buying products from Red China.

[TXBubba]

After seeing a tract inside the restaurant that offered a justification for slavery

The Confederate flag doesn't bother me but this would....unless it was a historical tract or a present day IRS tax code.

[4CJ]

She said Wal-Mart had similar problems with a barbecue sauce manufacturer in South Carolina in 2000.

Amazing. They have a "problem" with someone that cherishes their heritage - over 130 years in the past, yet has no problem purchasing BILLIONS of dollars of products manufactured at the hands of slaves today, and from countries that FORCE women to abort.

Double-standard? Or is it just about the money?

[centurion316]

Walmart is already associated with the statue. Across the street from Walmart Headquarters and adjoining the parking lot of the Walmart SuperCenter in Bentonville is the Peel House, an historic home and museum. The Peel House was the home of Colonel Samuel West Peel, Colonel of the 4th Arkansas Regiment, CSA and longtime postwar U.S. congressman from Arkansas. His brother-in-law was James H. Berry, Governor of Arkansas, and U.S. Senator, who lost his leg at Corinth, MS while serving as a Lieutenant in the 16th Arkansas Infantry, CSA. The library wing of the Peel House is named for James H. Berry.

The Peel House was purchased and restored by the Walmart Foundation and enjoys considerable financial backing from the Foundation and from Walton family members.

Although most Benton County residents sided with the Confederacy during the Late Unpleasantness, following the war, a sizable portion of the population were Union Army veterans. James H. Berry was instrumental in organizing joint Blue/Grey reunions at nearby Pea Ridge, the first such Union/Confederate gatherings in the country. Both Union and Confederate veterans gathered for years to honor their dead and pay respects for the common sacrifices of both sides. Benton County led the way towards reconciliation and James H. Berry was the man responsible. After leaving the Senate he headed a Federal Commission to identify and mark the graves of Confederate soldiers lying in Northern states, primarily the dead from Union prison camps.

What had been done by James H. Berry and his fellow veterans on both sides to heal the wounds of that war are now being undone by the political parasites who wish to fuel the flames of racial hatred as a means to further their political agendas. Shame on them. Shame on us.

[Guenevere]

#5...On a recent roadtrip to North Carolina, we stopped at the original Maurice's...(quite by accident, we had never heard of it)

It had the best Bar B Q I've ever eaten!!

There were tracts in the restaurant, but I never saw anything justifying slavery...

..there were certainly lots of old pictures of Confederate soldiers and lots of history type books and brochures...etc.

The BarBQ was outstanding!!!

[ppaul]

Hot Links:

Wal-Mart and Sam's Club pull Maurice's BBQ Sauce from Shelves
because he flies the Confederate Flag

[SCDogPapa]

Double-standard? Or is it just about the money?

I'd say both!!