Confederate Flag Out at Hillsborough County Center

The Confederate flag is no longer welcome inside Hillsborough’s Frederick B. Karl County Center.

Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to remove the nod to the past from public display, several media outlets are reporting.

Discussion about the flag’s display in the Kennedy Boulevard building was launched following a national backlash against Confederate symbols on the heels of a racially charged church shooting in Charleston, S.C., that left nine black churchgoers dead.

Les Miller, Hillsborough’s only black commissioner, told The Tampa Tribune he wasn’t even aware the flag was in the building until it was brought to his attention earlier this month. It seems the flag was put on display when the county changed its seal to exclude the Confederate image back in 1994.

See Also:

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• Leaving the Confederacy Behind: Is It Time?

Hillsborough’s decision to remove its flag comes about a week after Marion County Commissioners took a different approach. The board there unanimously voted to fly the flag once more after it was taken down in the shootings’ wake.

The June 17 Charleston shootings have created a national cry for the removal of Confederate symbols from public spaces. Accused shooter Dylann Roof, 21, was associated with the flag courtesy of an online posting in which photos of the man posing with a Confederate flag were found.

Marion County’s government complex displays all five national flags that have flown over the Sunshine State during the past 500 years or so. Those flags include French, British, Spanish, American banners. Hillsborough’s display was similar, but only it was posted inside the building instead of outside.

While opponents to Hillsborough’s move cited the flag is a part of the county and state’s history, Miller didn’t agree.

“My contention is (the Confederacy) was not a nation. It was never recognized as a nation; it tried to pull away from a nation,” the Tribune quoted him as saying. “It’s a flag that’s depicted hatred and should not be flown in a government building.”

Patch file photo