Muted fight over Arkansas Confederate symbols

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas has dozens of monuments to the Confederacy, a city named after an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan and until recently was one of three states that honored Robert E. Lee on the same holiday as slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

But, if recent history is any guide, the re-evaluation of symbols of the Confederacy and slavery that's been renewed nationally by the deadly violence at a white nationalist protest in Virginia over the removal of a statue of Lee is unlikely to lead to the state removing any of its monuments. But it could at least prompt a look at other emblems.

The successful push this year to remove Lee from the King holiday demonstrates the challenges efforts for a more widespread re-evaluation could have. Similar efforts to give King his own holiday failed previously in the state Legislature and gained traction this year after Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson personally lobbied for the move, saying it was needed to unify the state and improve its image.

But, at the same time, Hutchinson said he wasn't calling for removal of Confederate monuments at the Capitol or elsewhere — a position he's repeated recently while at the same time condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists following the violence in Charlottesville.

"We should not start taking down monuments just because they remind us of an unpleasant past. Refusing to face our history by dismantling it is a mistake," Hutchinson said in a statement last week. "We should use our historical markers as teaching opportunities to provide greater leadership for the future. Part of the legislation I signed to separate the holidays of Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee was to use the history of the Civil War as a teaching opportunity for our students."

The King holiday fight followed other renewed looks at other symbols of slavery. The Little Rock City Board two years ago voted to rename the last remaining portion of Confederate Boulevard to Springer Boulevard, in honor of one of the area's first black property owners. The majority of the street had been named Springer since the 1970s. Last year, the state Democratic Party decided remove slave-holding presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson from its annual fundraising dinner. The event was instead named after former President Bill Clinton.

Plenty of other symbols still remain. Aside from dozens of local

monuments, there are three Confederate monuments on the state Capitol grounds — and a law enacted this year requires legislative approval before a state panel can look at erecting or removing any Capitol display. In east Arkansas, Forrest City is named for Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, an early Klan leader, and one of Little Rock's schools — David O. Dodd Elementary — carries the name of a teenage spy for the Confederacy.

There's an effort already to remove at least one monument, a Confederate statue in Walmart's hometown of Bentonville. The city's mayor says he's received a petition to have the statue removed as well as numerous calls

in support of it, but says the city isn't responsible for the statue. The monument honors Second Lt. James Berry and is located in the city's downtown square.

The state Democratic Party last week called for removing Confederate monuments from public grounds, saying they should be put in museums and privately owned spaces, but said there are no plans to formally propose their removal.

The next re-evaluation in the majority-Republican Legislature may focus on the state's flag instead of its monuments. Democratic Rep. Charles Blake says he plans to file a bill that would change state law so one of the stars on Arkansas' flag no longer represents the

Confederacy. Blake filed similar legislation earlier this year, but did not run it. Under the proposal, the star would instead represent the Quapaw, Osage and Caddo tribes and the other native American nations that inhabited Arkansas before France or Spain exercised dominion. Blake said he plans to introduce the bill in the 2019 session, unless he can get it on the agenda for any special session called before then.

"It's something that's needed. .. That is something I am passionate about and believe needs to happen to make our state better," Blake said.