We'd like to thank Marion Lambert, John Adams and
the Jubal Early Camp 556 for allowing us to participate.
with a project that's very dear to us. JD Spivey
Confederate Memorial Park
Monday, May 4, 2009
Southern Pride Flies over Florida
Kenric Ward: Southern pride
flies over Florida
By Kenric Ward
Sunday, May 3, 2009
TAMPA — In case you missed it, Confederate Memorial Day was April 26.
While 18 million Floridians may have been oblivious to the state-sanctioned
holiday, nearly 2,000 people gathered in east Tampa the day before to raise a
toast, and a flag, to Southern pride and the antebellum affinity for state’s rights.
The banner for their celebration was a 35-foot-by-60-foot battle flag, hoisted on a
139-foot poll at the Interstate 75/Interstate 4 interchange. Touted as the largest in
the world, the Stars and Bars flapped in the breeze, rippling to a mixture of
reverence and Rebel Yells.
If an assemblage of Civil War re-enactors seems anachronistic, don’t tell that to
Marion Lambert and members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. This throng
ran the gamut from the pre-pubescent to the post-septuagenarian. Entertainers
ranged from folk musicians to Lynyrd Skynyrd knockoffs. A few African Americans
even joined in the festivities.
Moving forward, Lambert says Florida’s SCV is using high-tech mapping tools to
locate future flag sites. Previously raised in Lake City (on I-75 near Interstate 10)
and Havana (U.S. 27 north of Tallahassee), additional flag locations are targeted
for Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Pensacola.
While the flag evokes fear and loathing among some — Gov. Jeb Bush removed it
from the Capitol grounds in the 1990s — the SCV remains proudly unreconstructed.
“Did you know that out of the 224 years that slavery was legal in this country, only
four of those years did the Confederate battle flag fly?” asks Georgia pastor John
Weaver.
Historians also point out that the Stars and Bars never flew on a slave ship. That
honor was reserved for the Stars and Stripes.
“When Massachusetts ended slavery, they sold their last slaves to the South, and
while the money was jingling in their pockets, they looked down their long, pointed.
noses at us,” Weaver cried.
Alexis de Tocqueville, writing in “Democracy in America,” foresaw in 1830 an
“Irrepressible conflict” between North and South. Almost 150 years after the last
shots were fired in the War Between the States, a geographic and cultural divide
remains. Though no one is talking about re-imposing slavery, the Confederate
battle flag remains iconic.
Bearing St. Andrew’s cross, and the Christianity that adheres to it, the Rebel
banner has rallied freedom fighters around the globe. When the Berlin Wall fell, the
Stars and Bars waved amidst the cheering East Germans.
Florida’s Confederate remnant didn’t lay down its arms until May 10, 1865, almost
a month after Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Gov. John Milton,
who said he would rather die than live under Yankee rule, committed suicide at the
end of the war. Tallahassee was the only state capital east of the Mississippi not
occupied by Union forces.
Plaques at the Tampa monument commemorate such history and recount.
depredations committed by Union troops on civilians. Secessionist-author Walter
“Donnie” Kennedy amplified on the subject, relating that Karl Marx applauded.
Abraham Lincoln’s re-election in 1864 as a victory for centralized government
control and “the reconstruction of a social world.”
If the Florida SCV wins state approval for a Confederate license plate, the $25-per-
tag revenue will help to expand the organization’s “Flags Across Florida.”
campaign. At an estimated cost of $140,000, memorials like the one in Tampa will
require a lot of tag sales.
Ultimately, though, the SCV says it’s not enough to put up new banners — no
matter how big.
“It’s not enough to raise the Confederate flag,” Weaver declared Saturday. “We
must raise Confederates!”
Lambert says there are about 1,700 Florida SCV members (who, by organization
rules, are descendants of Confederate soldiers) and 35,000 across the South. To
see how their work is going, visit the memorial park at 10418 U.S. 92.
Just look for the flag. You can’t miss it.
By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune
Published: June 3, 2008
EUREKA SPRINGS - In a gentle southern breeze, the Confederate battle flag
that will be seen by hundreds of thousands of travelers each day was raised
this morning.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans unfurled the 50-by-30-foot flag next to the
Interstate 75 bridge over U.S. 92 at 7 a.m. to commemorate the 200th
birthday today of the Confederacy's only president, Jefferson Davis.
More than a dozen people attended, many wearing Dixie Outfitters T-shirts
proclaiming, "It's a Southern Thing."
J.D. Spivey wore a black leather vest adorned with Confederate symbols.
He's the founder of Hardcore Confederates, made up mostly of motorcycle
riders. Spivey said this was a proud day.
For some, the flag is a symbol of racial hatred, and it was condemned this
week by officials with the Florida NAACP after they learned from the Tribune it
was going up.
Modern day Southern sympathizers don't see it that way.
"I tell them to read history. That's what I tell them," Spivey said. "I'm real proud
of my ancestors and what they did. They stood up for what they believed in."
The flag, which cost $800 and was made in China, is the centerpiece of a
Civil War memorial park that will be dedicated April 26, Confederate Memorial
Day.
