Campaign for fences will head to Capitol

The Arkansas motto Is regnant populus (The People Rule). That is not always the case.

After hearing of a possible rape of a white woman by a Black man, an angry mob on the night of Jan. 28, 1909, drove Black residents out of Harrison, Arkansas. History shows only one Black woman remained. She was Alecta Caledonia Melvina Smith, known as “Aunt Vine.” In this episode, most of the people of Harrison did not rule, rather a small mob of angry, hateful individuals ruled the day. They were prejudiced against people with black skin.

Just out of curiosity: If any of the Black people who fled were recipients of the “Forty Acres and a Mule,” where are those 40 acres, who owns them now and by what process did they attain ownership? And, who got the mule?

On Jan. 1, 2022, the Bella Vista Architectural Control Committee (ACC) comprised of six board members appointed by Cooper Communities Inc. ordered there would be no white fences allowed in Bella Vista. All white fences had to be removed or painted another color approved by ACC. Like Harrison, most of the people of Bella Vista are having to live with the stigma created by the few who have a bias toward the color “white.”

If the people of Bella Vista had the chance of ruling like the state motto claims, we would be able to keep our white fences. The Bella Vista Patriots, a group I’m part of, believe the almost 30,000 people living in Bella Vista approve of keeping our white fences. There are only six people we know of that want the white fences to go. Those six are the board members of the ACC: John Cooper III; Borem Cooper; Neff Basore, senior vice president of CCI; Mike Tagart, director of the ACC; Ralph “Buddy” Vernetti; and Theresa Neal.

Vernetti has said publicly that “White is an unhappy color.” If that is so, why do brides usually wear white dresses? Why do we have white stripes in our American flag? Why don’t we cut down all of our dogwood trees in the spring? The encyclopedia defines a white fence as part of the “American Dream.”

In the CCI Protective Covenants of 1965 there is a clause that states there will be no white houses in Bella Vista. And there aren’t any except for a couple CCl owns and a few churches. Doesn’t our president of the United States live in the While House? Doesn’t Donald Trump own a big white fence in front of his home in Florida? Aren’t most state capitol buildings white? What the heck is wrong with the color?

The Bella Vista Patriots plan to rent a bus and go to Little Rock and lobby our Legislature to pass a bill that will put an end to this injustice. This is the process we used in 2005 to become a city and we think we will be successful again.

JIM PARSONS Bella Vista