Huge Confederate flag is raised early along I-75 and I-4

TAMPA — Men driving pickups honked and flashed a thumbs-up sign. One yelled "Hell, yeah!" Another pumped his fist in the air.

Others, though, weren't nearly as pleased at the sight of a Confederate flag the size of a semitrailer truck flying Tuesday high above the junction of Interstates 75 and 4.

"It's huge and it's obnoxious," said Curtis Stokes, president of the Hillsborough County branch of the NAACP.

Organizers building a Civil War monument at the site said last week they hoped to fly the Confederate flag sometime next year. But they raised it shortly after sunrise Tuesday to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederate States of America.

"I love it. It's gorgeous," said Tanya Heard, 27, who lives nearby and pulled over to look up at the flag, along U.S. 92 in the Eureka Springs neighborhood just west of I-75.

The flag, which cost $800, was lowered at sundown and organizers said it won't go up again until the site is officially dedicated.

Stokes and Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White also drove by Tuesday afternoon.

"I just wish there was something from the county perspective that we could do," White said. "But we can't censor free speech."

The county exempted flags from its sign regulations in 2004. However, County Commissioner Rose Ferlita said she plans to bring the flag issue up for discussion during a board meeting today.

Tampa resident Marion Lambert, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, paid $7,000 for the 0.19-acre site in January 2004. In February 2005, Lambert met with six planners from Hillsborough's Planning and Growth Management Department, who advised him how to prepare an application for a variance to build a monument.

In April 2005, county records show, a land use hearing officer approved Lambert's request for a lighted park with monuments and a flagpole "to commemorate American veterans."

But no one in county government asked Lambert which veterans he planned to honor, or how.

"They never asked the question, 'Well, what flag you going to put up?' " Lambert said. "I never lied to them."

While the flag's outline was visible from more than a mile away at some points, it was the view from the southbound lanes of I-75 that took drivers' breath away.

It was suddenly, jarringly there as drivers rounded a bend in the road and crested the I-4 overpass, and just as they came upon the exit sign that says "Martin Luther King Blvd. 1 mile."

The flag was national news this week on CNN and Fox News. A report posted Friday on the Times' Web site, tampabay.com, drew more than 1,200 reader comments.

While many passers-by expressed support for the flag Tuesday, Maxine Meyer, who owns a boat business next to the park, was having a "no parking" sign put in her parking lot.

She worries that visitors to the monument, which is adjacent to her property, will cause traffic jams and accidents.

"If we were going to put a flag up there, it'd be an American flag," Meyer said.

Jan Wesner can be reached at jwesner@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2439. Andrew Meacham can be reached at ameacham@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2431.

Comments on this article

by JH	Jun 5, 2008 1:08 PM
Sharpton, Jackson, Obama--quotas, racial preferences, set asides, entitlements and all that make me sick. For me Bush is a liberal. This flag flying is about free speech. I still don't like it because I think it's hurtful to my black friends.

by Mike	Jun 5, 2008 10:15 AM
Really Greg so you know all of those who had family and died for that flag were all racist, get a grip guy and learn history,

by mike	Jun 5, 2008 10:15 AM
the people who think this is racist are ignorant people. you need to learn your history for if this is racist then so is the American one which the KK flies and was used to put down and displace native Americans, get a grip and learn history

by Dean	Jun 5, 2008 10:14 AM
I think its an important reminder that we are not as free as we think. If Floridians decide to break ties with the rest of the US because of its policies, US soldiers will come here with guns and force us into submission.

by Robin	Jun 5, 2008 10:11 AM
While an avid supporter of the 1st amendment to our Constitution (the free speech part, that pertains to my comment), we do live in the United Sates of America. Fly the US flag! Heritage not hate, I believe the Conf. . . flag represents hatred. . .

by nick	Jun 5, 2008 10:08 AM
It IS an american Flag, just a different one. For the people who are offended by the flag, not a single one of you were alive to face the wrath of southern slavery. I do not believe the flag is a symbol of racism, but of the south. Im from Chicago.

by lina	Jun 5, 2008 10:07 AM
Grow up and get a life. The war has been over a very long time and you lost.

by Jeff	Jun 5, 2008 10:07 AM
Blacks who object to the flag are racists showing thier hatred for whites. Confederate heritage is important to some Southerners, just like African heritage is important to some blacks. Let go of the hate.

by Carmine	Jun 5, 2008 10:05 AM
why isn't there any outcry about the P.R. flag or parade, Mexican flags, Cuban flags etc etc. being flown everywhere? If it is ok for one group of people, it has to be ok for all. Get over it. when is the dago day parade?

by Elizabeth	Jun 5, 2008 10:04 AM
If I choose to remember my heritage in my own way, I have that right. And for those of you who compare it Nazi, guess it takes one to know one. To Grimreaper, you are the sanest I know!

by Carl	Jun 5, 2008 10:04 AM
Like I said before - if others can fly a Mexican, Italian or even Texas flags, then allow them to show their ignorance and fly the symbol of what I consider stupidity or a sign of "redneck" at its best. These people have not concern about the flag.

by KH	Jun 5, 2008 10:02 AM
ITS FREE SPEECH AND EVERYONE SHOULD SHUT UP. OBAMA IS MORE DIVISIVE. HES A RACIST THAT HAS MORE BAGGAGE THAN A FLAG FLYING FROM A QUIET POLE.

by Robert	Jun 5, 2008 10:02 AM
If you don't like it, don't look at it. If it offends you, too bad! This is still America last I checked. FREEDOM OF SPEECH!

by Bill	Jun 5, 2008 8:35 AM
Thanks for your article in today's paper about the true flags of the Confederacy. Wish more people would get it right. How sad that the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern VA. has become misused by some, and misunderstood by others.

by Mr Fuggly	Jun 4, 2008 9:38 PM
The confederate flag is apart of the American history ,The australian people have allways looked up to the americans .your history is so interesting ,and is so close to ours .... Whats wrong with flying a flag to remember the soldiers that have fell

by Joe	Jun 4, 2008 9:36 PM
Ironic that Florida ranks towards the bottom on the list of education in the USA. LOUD, PROUD, and of course IGNORANT!!!!

by Laura	Jun 4, 2008 9:36 PM
If this was about truly honoring the vets of the Civil War, he would have used the Confederate flag that was flown during that period, NOT this flag. Just another case of racists wrapping themselves in this flag and calling it honoring their dead.

by Tyrone	Jun 4, 2008 9:34 PM
I am black male. Grandaddy fought in world war 2. Told me he was captured by germans and treated no differently than anybody elst. Said the germans had good noble character and were fair considerin the times. Truckloads of lies told about THEM too.

by Connie	Jun 4, 2008 9:33 PM
Sad day when selective free speech is used. If this were any other group there would be no problem. Tracey-people like you are the punks. I believe in my constitutional rights. You do not.

by Eric	Jun 4, 2008 5:03 PM
I'm of Cuban decent and don't find it offensive. It represents the South and Southern Culture. If you don't like it leave. If you don't think Florida is Southern get out ot the fricking city.

by Eric	Jun 4, 2008 5:03 PM
I'm tired of races other than whites trying to better themselves so that they have the upper hand and now whites have to struggle to live becuase we don't qualify for gov. handouts. Screw the NAACP, screw naming roads MLK, screw Black history month.

by Billy Ray	Jun 4, 2008 5:02 PM
The ones crying about the flag are the ones who are predjudiced. They can fly their flags, have their history, but a southerner does it they're racist. Get over it, that was 140 yr.s ago. It's history, you've got yours, and we've got ours.

by Simon	Jun 4, 2008 4:47 PM
So these people's traitor ancestors took up arms against the U.S., killed hundreds of thousands of people, enslaved 20% of the population and they want to honor them for it?

by Sal	Jun 4, 2008 4:44 PM
Legal permitting, private property and funding, sounds like free speech to me. Many may not like it but I think it will be very hard to get rid of. My guess is that it stays. I wonder how many would change their opinion if it was a Mexican flag?

by marcus	Jun 4, 2008 4:43 PM
Racist this, racist that, predjudice this, predjudice that...it seems to me that the ones crying about the flag, are the ones who are predjudiced. If other societies can fly thier flags, why can't southerners? We have our history too! Let it go.

by Rickster	Jun 4, 2008 4:43 PM
I thought that a US Flag had to be flown above and over any such flag. You NEVER see a state flag without the US Flag with it. Aside from being offensive to some, it should be offensive to all, with Flag Day coming up, that's not what they meant.

by Guy	Jun 4, 2008 4:34 PM
I'd like to see Kimmie and Mark walk through Edmondson and Payson with their Confederate Flag. Maryland was a Southern State but in Baltimore wave the Racist Flag at your own risk...you ever watch "The Wire"??

by OU7TITLES	Jun 4, 2008 4:34 PM
I guess Jesse Jackson will show up listening to Chris Rock on his IPod to protest the flag.

by Chuck	Jun 4, 2008 4:32 PM
lets honor a traitor ! Jefferson Davis Day... where was he from? where was his dad from? Yankee

by Jocephus	Jun 4, 2008 4:31 PM
Everyone says that the war was about states' rights rather than slavery. That sounds nice, but it was really about the states' rights to allow slavery. Confed. states actually seceded over federal refusal to allow slavery in the territories!

by john	Jun 4, 2008 4:28 PM
Very sad day again for Florida. How typical Florida behavior. Sig Heil next?

by Mara	Jun 4, 2008 4:27 PM
On April 12, 2000, the South Carolina State Senate passed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the top of the State House dome by a majority vote of 36 to 7. Originally placed there in 1962,[24] "the new bill specified that a more Cont....

by Logic	Jun 4, 2008 4:27 PM
Waiving that flag they are an Enemy of the State. Any american has the right to defend freedom and take down that flag. IT IS AN ENEMY FLAG. not protected by constitution. anyone who waives that flag with pride should be shot.

by DLS	Jun 4, 2008 4:18 PM
I see nothing worng with the Flag the man did everything as he was instructed to do so.most of our rights have been taken away let the man alone.if this is what he wants to do with his money and his property then so be it.and also fly the american fl

by Abe	Jun 4, 2008 4:16 PM
When something becomes "History" it belongs in a museum, not used to further an agenda!