Advertisement

Confederate flag in Hillsborough County headquarters becomes target of debate

 
A Confederate flag hangs in the Hillsborough County Center building on E Kennedy Avenue. [MICHAEL BOU-NACKLIE   |   Times]
A Confederate flag hangs in the Hillsborough County Center building on E Kennedy Avenue. [MICHAEL BOU-NACKLIE | Times]
Published July 2, 2015

TAMPA

A Confederate flag hangs in the foyer of Hillsborough County's government headquarters, but maybe not for long.

County commissioners will consider removing the flag from its stand above the Frederick B. Karl County Center front desk when they next meet July 15. It has been up there for two decades.

Hillsborough County would become the latest Southern government to distance itself from the flag in the wake of the racially motivated shooting at a Charleston, S.C., church that left nine black men and women dead. The shooting suspect has been photographed holding the Confederate flag.

"If those flags have to be somewhere, let them be displayed in a history center," County Commissioner Les Miller said. "I don't think it should be in a government building in any matter whatsoever."

Miller, the county's lone black commissioner, said he received complaints about the flag in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting and is working with county staff on a proposal to remove it. Commissioner Kevin Beckner joined Miller's call for its removal.

"It need not — and should not — be glorified by local, state or federal governments," Beckner said.

But Commissioner Stacy White said moving the flag would set "a dangerous precedent to try to erase or rewrite history." White will propose a referendum to let voters decide whether the flag should be taken down.

"That is a historical display that is displayed in a dignified and respectful way that is clearly in a historical context," White said.

"I've been watching what's going on nationwide over this issue, and Hillsborough County should step up and take a leadership role and show the rest of the nation that politicians should step away on this issue and let the people decide."

There are several variations of the Confederate flag. The flag that hangs in the foyer of the building is the third and final flag adopted by the Confederacy just before its defeat.

It's not the well-known Confederate battle flag but it contains that familiar red, white and blue Southern cross in the upper-left hand corner. The rest is white with a red vertical stripe on the right side.

In some ways, the flag is hidden in plain sight. It hangs above the first-floor help desk, but it is last in a row of five flags and is blocked from the view of the northeast entrance by a second-floor walkway. It may not be readily seen by many of the hundreds of government employees and Hillsborough residents who shuffle in and out of the county center every day.

Ironically, the idea to put a Confederate flag in Hillsborough's government headquarters came from one of the county's most venerable Democratic politicians, then-Commissioner Jan Platt.

The decision came amid a heated, monthslong dispute in 1994 over whether to remove the Confederate flag from the county seal. The tenor of the debate was similar to the divide seen in many Southern communities in recent weeks since the Charleston shooting.

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter

We’ll deliver the latest news and information you need to know every morning.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Platt offered a compromise: Change the seal and instead display the flag along with those of Spain, France, Great Britain and the United States — all the national flags that have flown over Hillsborough County at one time or another.

"Many well-meaning individuals have very strong positions on both sides of the issue," Platt wrote at the time. "I believe it essential that a fair decision be made in a timely fashion and that further division within our community be put to rest."

Commissioners voted 4-3 to replace the county seal with a picture of the old courthouse. A few minutes later, the flag display was approved 5-2.

Even then, there were predictions that the flag's new location would not appease everyone for long.

"If the flag is offensive in one place, why won't it be offensive in another place?" Marion Lambert, a vocal local advocate of the Confederate flag, told the St. Petersburg Times in 1994.

Former Commissioner Ed Turanchik voted to change the seal and to have the flag hang in the county building. He told the Times the display was meant to acknowledge Hillsborough's historical ties to the Confederacy and "not really meant to be flying the flag, per se."

But he added: "If it's really becoming offensive to people, the best thing to do is to take it down and think of another way to represent history."

Politicians throughout the South have moved swiftly to erase the divisive symbol from government buildings in recent weeks. Most notably, South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley called for lawmakers to take down the Confederate battle flag that flies near the State House there.

The county has not yet approached the Tampa Bay History Center about displaying the flag, curator Rodney Kite-Powell said, but it would consider it.

"We have a unique platform to talk about these kinds of things where a public building or a park wouldn't," Kite-Powell said. "In a museum environment, we can foster that kind of discussion."

Contact Steve Contorno at scontorno@tampabay.com. Follow @scontorno.