On day when history is made, ugly past rears its head

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On the same Tuesday that Barack Obama became the first African-American to win the Democratic nomination for president, local activists raised a Confederate flag the size of a semitrailer truck at the intersection of Interstates 75 and 4.

Some might suggest an indirect connection — that supporters of Confederate history, angry that their heritage has been overlooked in the rush to celebrate multicultural achievement, wanted an in-your-face way to grab the area's attention.

"We've been marginalized and put off and ostracized for the last 20 years," said Marion Lambert, a Tampa member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He said he didn't plan specifically to raise the flag on Obama's big day but doesn't mind the juxtaposition. "We're using this ultimate weapon we have been given by a society which ostracized it."

Lambert unfurled the flag for the day on Tuesday for the 200th birthday of Confederacy president Jefferson Davis, planing to display it permanently when a Civil War monument there is finished. His position: The Confederate battle flag isn't solely a pro-slavery symbol, and the memorial will outline that history.

Still, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center notes that increases in America's diversity often produce a backlash.

Look back a century, and the rise of industrialism fed a backlash against Catholic immigrants taking factory jobs. These days, globalization fuels the frustration of anti-illegal immigration scolds such as CNN's Lou Dobbs.

"The country is going to lose its white majority by 2015 and we may have a black president next year," Potok said. "That brings real reactions from white people who are not klansmen or neo-Nazis."

Gaines Foster, a history professor at Louisiana State University, said the SCV echoes efforts by some Southerners to minimize the role of slavery in the Civil War — a notion many historians now reject.

He noted current flag friction also references the way segregationists made the Confederate battle flag their symbol in the civil rights era. "When you're flying a flag you're not just celebrating the past, you're making a statement about the present," Foster said.

So could the SCV admit the battle flag's connection to segregationists and fly another flag? Doesn't Obama's success also suggest there's a way to bridge this gap?

"I don't know," said Lambert. "The emotionalism here is like fire and brimstone. I'm not sure that's debatable."

Comments on this article

by BillyBearden	Jun 10, 2008 12:39 PM
Eric Deggans, in his poor leftist attempt to create a racial angle to the story, purposely hides the fact that June 3rd 2008 was the 200th Birthday of Jefferson Davis. Wonder why multiculturalism always excludes whitey?

by Lin	Jun 6, 2008 8:02 PM
To Jimmy: Time was when whites were strangers in this land.Whites were the minority, Indians the majority.Worldwide whites are still a minority & about to become that here again too.You are blind.Get to know people-beyond superficial skin color.

by Mack	Jun 6, 2008 7:56 PM
The Liberal is always ready to give away anything so long as it is not theirs. This includes their heritage. As long as they can find a subject to give them attention, they will strive to devide. A flag is a flag-a cause is a cause.

by Tommy	Jun 6, 2008 7:37 PM
The Confederate Flag, like the Stars and Stripes, represents the same spirit of independence, still living in Southern hearts today. Southern Independence was denied, but there is no denying the honor and valor represented in the folds of that flag.

by C	Jun 6, 2008 7:12 PM
These guys in the Tampa mediaa good at taking quotes out of one context rearranging them to make "it fit" to thie twisted logic. As has been said before "another" flag has already been approved o fly and will. Of course y'all will fuss about it to.

by Dave

Jun 6, 2008 4:48 PM

Your allusion that the SCV's display of this flag is similar to displays of it during the civil rights era is absurd! The symbol of the SCV since its inception in 1896 has been the Confederate battleflag because it is the flag of the individual Southern soldier whom we honor--nothing more, nothing less. Any claims that it is a symbol of racism or slavery post-date by far the creation of the SCV organization.

by Dave	Jun 6, 2008 1:53 PM
You allusion that the SCV's display of this flag is similar to displays of it during the civil rights era is absurd! The symbol of the SCV since its formation in 1896 has always been the battleflag because it is the flag of the Southern soldier.

by JamesW

Jun 6, 2008 1:52 PM

The Confederate flag represents Constitutional Limited Federal Government, States Rights, Resistance to Tyranny, and Christian Values and Principles. Thus it represents the principles and values of America's founding fathers. To say that it represents racism and bigotry is a negative and shallow interpretation comparable to saying the U.S. flag represents the genocide of the American Indians and abortion.

by Charles	Jun 5, 2008 9:03 PM
Gaines is insulting! When has the SCV downplayed the role of slavery? The SCV simply knows that it was not THE main cause of the War. Yes, the flag was connected to seg's and racists, as the US has flag has. But does that mean they mean hatred?

by Jimmy	Jun 5, 2008 9:03 PM
Time was, Blacks were strangers in this land, no one thought, then, they would ever amount to anything. That changed. Yet, Blacks now would prevent us, White Southerners, the very liberty they themselves bled to achieve. They are blinded by the light

by Jonathan	Jun 5, 2008 6:53 PM
"Send them to Liberia, to their own native land. But free them and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit this." - Abraham Lincoln, as cited in "The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln," R Basler,Rutgers University Press

by Ernie	Jun 5, 2008 3:10 PM
Many historians are attached to the left & often alter real intrepretation of history to the politcal correct. This professional historian sees multiple causes for the war and slavery is only a subset of larger economic issue. Its heritage not hate.