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Tuesday, January 27, 2004more on wal-mart and black folks
A gentleman emailed the administrator of e-drum in response to the article "Wal-Mart and the Economic Destruction of Black Communities".
Although it's nice to read about Sam Walton in a different perspective, he's been dead for a while and since his death Wal-Mart has turned into Lucifer.
Brother Kalamu,
I actually grew up where Walton got his start. It wasn't in Bentonville, Arkansas, but Newport, Arkansas.
It may interest you that Sam Walton owned the five & dime store, with the Town's only soda fountain and situated near the Black business district. It was also a pharmacy and convenience store. I do not support the pure insatiable greed of WalMart, the old man's store/pharmacy was integrated long before many others. In fact, his store was always integrated and the fountain stools were for both races, as were the
plates and soda glasses. This seems like no big deal now, but he never made any difference in his service to his customers by race, and the town gentry knew not to fuck with him either. Once, there were some Klan types that came into Newport and went to his store to get some ice cream or sundaes or something from the fountain and saw black people enter and sat down....they jumped sky high and demanded why he
served "them people" in the white area. He told them to get their Cracker asses out of his store, and gave everyone free cones (ice cream). The black community talked about that for a long time, about old Sam
Walton. I don't know why they left Newport out of Sam Walton's history...it may have to do with his falling out with the local yokels.
Harry Thompson
07:46 AM | Permalink
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Comments
One day I got lucky and wandered into your site and I have been reading and thoroughly enjoying your writings ever since. As many times as I've read your posts and nodded my head, grinning in agreement, or laughed my ass off at some of your lively recountings or shaking my head in outrage at the information you've provided, this is the post that struck a nerve hard enough to push me to respond. If you get a chance, please check out an article at the Fast Company website: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html This article shook me to the point where I hounded my friends and colleagues to check it out. I find it disturbing and frightening, not just for us folks, but for the entire nation.
Thanks for all of your musings, and I look forward to all of your future posts.
Posted by: jude at Jan 29, 2004 8:55:15 AM
