Confederate flag flying, but will Super Bowl visitors notice?

     The group that put up a massive Confederate flag near I-75 and I-4 in east Hillsborough says it's not looking for extra attention during Super Bowl week. With so many events based in Tampa, some wonder if many visitos will even see the flag. Check out the story by the Times' Chandra Broadwater here.

-- Doug Bennett, Times staff writer

Wind-battered Confederate flag flies again

TAMPA -- For opponents of a huge Confederate flag near Interstates 4 and 75, its recent absence stirred hope.

"I heard this morning that the flag was down," Stacie Blake, the executive director of Community Tampa Bay, said Thursday. Blake, whose nonprofit group promotes racial equality, said she had learned of the flag being down on a social networking Web site.

"The next person to comment said, 'Thank heaven, because that flag is so painful for my children every day. I can't wait for my son to get home from school, so I can tell him.'

But it turns out the flag was only down for repairs. A wind storm Monday night left the 30- by 60-foot flag tattered, said Marion Lambert of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the group that owns the .3-acre property and sponsored the flag project.

"Monday it was beautiful," Lambert said. "Tuesday it was shot."

The group had the flag repaired and will raise it again at 2 p.m. today. A park at the site honoring fallen Confederate soldiers is nearing completion, Lambert said.

Confederate flag even bigger

The world's largest Confederate flag is even bigger and redder than before.

On Sunday afternoon, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans unfurled a 30-by-60 foot battle flag at the junction of Interstates 4 and 75. The new flag is 10 feet longer than the old one and weighs about 100 pounds.

Pieces of the old flag will be sold on eBay to help pay for a $100,000 memorial under construction at the same location, said Marion Lambert, a group member who spearheaded the project. Made of 16-tons of granite, the memorial will be adorned with brass plaques honoring Confederate veterans. It's expected to be complete in a month or two.

"We're graduating the impact of the symbolism in degrees," Lambert said. "It's flying very large, very big and very red."

He added that the flag could get even bigger.

"I think it can go quite a bit bigger," Lambert said. "It might be in the future."

- Chandra Broadwater, Times staff writer

Confederate flag flap continues

If there's one thing the Sons of Confederate Veterans love more than their flag, it's the controversy they help create about the flag. The SCV hoisted the Confederate flag last weekend to honor Bart Seigel, who argued publicly on its behalf. Seigel was found dead Aug. 7 in an apparent suicide.

Several days later, the flag still flies near Interstates 4 and 75. There are at least two reasons, neither of which means the flag is up to stay just yet.

First, said Marion Lambert, who bought the property and orchestrated the development of a monument around the flag, "It looked awful good being up."

The SCV also wanted to send a message to the Hillsborough County NAACP, an organization SCV members have resented ever since a 1991 resolution in which the national NAACP declared the Confederate flag an "odious blight upon the universe."

-- Andrew Meacham, Times staff writer

Confederate flag discussions: More doubt than dialogue

UPDATE: Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans are mourning Bart Seigel, who was found dead on Thursday in his Temple Terrace home in an apparent suicide.

Seigel's funeral on Sunday drew more than 300 people, said Marion Lambert, who spearheaded the Confederate flag monument in East Tampa.

Seigel. who lacked the lineage necessary for membership, was listed as an associate member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Lambert described the service as a testament to the group's purposes and mission, notably its activism on "the flag project, to being Southern, and defending against being marginalized."

Seigel was an outspoken advocate for all of those causes.  He never showed any sign of unhappiness, Lambert said, and his death comes as a shock.

"Bart made a wrong choice," Lambert said.  "But that doesn't damn him eternally."

The Confederate flag may soon fly at Interstate 75 and U.S. 92 near Brandon as part of a monument installed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. But for now, all that's flying are rumors.

A recent gathering of opponents and supporters of the flag (pictured at left) fell flat. The Community Justice Forum sponsored the event and paid for more than twice as many meals as there were guests.

The group -- about 14 in the audience and seven more who were speaking for either side -- baffled Al McCray, whose Community Justice Forum organized the event.

"Is it that they don't care" McCray asked, "or that they are saying, 'We've got better things to do with our lives?' "

Expect the drumbeat to continue as McCray and Marion Lambert, who bought the property for the monument and spearheaded the project, visit school officials and local black ministers in coming months.

-- Andrew Meacham, Times staff writer