Walmart To Stop Selling Products With Confederate Flag

Confederate battle flags fly outside the museum at the Confederate Memorial Park in Mountain Creek, Ala., Tuesday, July 19, 2011. More than 60,000 Confederate veterans came home to Alabama after the Civil War, and re... Confederate battle flags fly outside the museum at the Confederate Memorial Park in Mountain Creek, Ala., Tuesday, July 19, 2011. More than 60,000 Confederate veterans came home to Alabama after the Civil War, and residents are still paying a tax that supported them 150 years after the fighting began. The tax now pays for the park, which is located on the same 102-acre tract where elderly veterans used to stroll. The tax once brought in millions for Confederate pensions, but lawmakers sliced up the levy and sent money elsewhere as the men and their wives died. No one has seriously challenged the continued use of the money for a memorial to the ?Lost Cause,? although a long-serving black legislator wants to eliminate state funding for the park. (AP Photo/Dave Martin) MORE LESS

June 23, 2015 7:26 a.m.

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Walmart will stop selling Confederate flags and any merchandise featuring the flag, CNN reported on Monday.

“We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer. We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment — whether in our stores or on our web site,” Walmart spokesman Brian Nick told CNN. “We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell. Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly — this is one of those instances.”

The store currently carries Confederate flags, as well as clothing with the flag’s design, but the renewed debate over the flag led Walmart to reconsider carrying such merchandise.

Sears Holdings Corporation, which owns Sears and Kmart, will also stop selling products with the flag, according to Reuters.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) on Monday called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the state’s capitol grounds.

After a white man fatally shot nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., some lawmakers and activists have called for the state to take down the Confederate flag.

During a Monday press conference, Haley said that the suspect in the shooting, Dylann Roof, had a “sick and twisted view of the flag.”

“My hope is that by removing a symbol that divides us, we can move forward as a state in harmony and we can honor the nine blessed souls who are now in heaven,” she said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also called for the state to remove the flag from the capitol.

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