Memorial planned to honor soldiers of both North and South

A Reconciliation Memorial telling the story of both the Union and Confederate armies has been designed to take the place of the Confederate flag that once flew at the plaza at Veterans Memorial Park.

The focal point of the memorial will be a gray granite 8-foot obelisk that will look similar to the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.

The four-sided obelisk will tell the story of how both sides lost soldiers and what and why they were fighting.

The memorial, which is expected to cost $25,000, with an additional $10,000 for its base and instillation, will be placed on the east side of Veterans Memorial Park, adjacent to the flag pavilion on the north, according to Bryson Allen, chairman of the Veterans Memorial Park board of directors.

“Every war our nation has ever fought in has forgiven its enemies and reconciled the differences – except in the case of the Civil War,” Allen said.

Last week, Wichita Park Board members voted to permanently keep the Confederate flag from flying at Veterans Memorial Park. The flag was removed on July 2 by order of Mayor Jeff Longwell, who acknowledged then that he and City Council members received numerous e-mails and phone calls following the deadly shootings in June at a black church in South Carolina. The accused shooter posted pictures on social media of himself posing with the flag.

The park board also recommended replacing the Confederate flag with the Kansas flag in the flag pavilion.

The Kansas flag is appropriate to fly, said John Stevens – whose father was John S. Stevens, for whom the pavilion is named. Kansas was the 34th state to be accepted into the Union, just months before the nation was thrust into the Civil War. Kansas entered as a free state. The American flag with 34 stars only had one president who served under it – Abraham Lincoln.

The Confederate flag was originally placed in the Wichita pavilion in 1976 as part of the nation’s bicentennial.

It was time for it to come down, Stevens said.

“I didn’t think my father would like to have that (Confederate) flag up there,” Stevens said. “The Kansas flag doesn’t have the political consequences that the Confederate flag has come to have. ... My dad was a veteran. I am very positive for veterans and what they have done for our country. But my dad’s name was on 100 percent of the park, and then the veterans came in and decided to rename the park and leave my dad’s name off of everything but the pavilion. If I can’t have a little bit of say as a family member, then it becomes an irritation.”

Stevens’ father, a veteran of World War II, served as a city commissioner from 1963 through 1976 and was mayor in 1966 and 1967. He died in 1976.

For at least three years, the Veterans Memorial Park board has wanted to create a Civil War reconciliation memorial, Allen said. It was first suggested by Phil Blake, a World War II veteran who for nearly two decades helped rescue dilapidated and forgotten war memorials across Wichita. He died a year ago.

“We were looking for an opportunity to bring it forward,” Allen said. “After the flag controversy, it seemed like the right time to present it to the mayor. He told us to get together with the park and recreation director, and it has been in the works ever since.”

The veterans group hopes to have the memorial installed in the park by May 21 – Armed Forces Day.

Longwell said Sunday that the city will help fund a portion of the memorial, but the rest will be raised by veterans through private donations.

“The reality is it was a group of veterans that worked out the proposal,” Longwell said. “It was veterans who have deep concerns for all veterans who have fought in every war. There isn’t a reconciliation memorial anywhere else like this in the country. I hope it catches on. It still honors the South and the North and shows the story and provides the opportunity to reconcile.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Memorial planned to honor soldiers of both North and South."