Leader says Confederate flag will likely stay up

TAMPA -- Expect the huge Confederate flag along Interstate 75 to remain up for the foreseeable future.

Until now, the Sons of Confederate Veterans have been coy about just when the 30- by 50-foot flag near the junction of Interstate 4 would fly for good.

The flag has been raised for brief periods and lowered at least twice before it was put up in August to commemorate outspoken flag proponent Bart Seigel, who died last month in an apparent suicide.

"My hunch, my gut feeling, is that it will probably stay up," said Marion Lambert, who spearheaded the effort to erect the flag and a monument around its base along U.S. 92 in the Eureka Springs neighborhood.

Compared with national attention garnered when the flag was raised in June, the permanent raising of the Confederate flag -- if that's what this proves to be -- on a 139-foot pole is decidedly low-key. Lambert said the group is tired of trying to negotiate with vocal critics and especially the NAACP, whose leader, Curtis Stokes, has criticized the SCV.

A recent forum in Tampa to promote dialogue attracted only 14 people.

"It was a complete washout," Lambert said. "Would we like to talk to the proper partners of the community about this? Certainly we would. But it doesn’t seem to be germane to their interests."

Construction of the monument, which will include names of Confederate soldiers, landscaping and lights to illuminate the flag at night, is expected to resume around Oct. 1.

It's Your Times: Should the flag stay?

-- Andrew Meacham, Times staff writer 

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