Jenny Horne, descendant of the Confederacy, helped bring down South Carolina flag

Gov. Nikki Haley will sign the bill into law at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Just before 1 a.m. Thursday, Quinn did drop his effort to amend the bill and explained that he was only trying to build a large enough majority to give the bill the two-thirds majority it needed to pass. He added that the Democrats who painted him as heartless were liars.

Last month, nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, including state Senator Pinckney, were killed at the historic Emanuel African Episcopal Church.

State Rep. John King, right, D-York, hugs a woman after the House approved a bill removing the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds early Thursday, July 9, 2015, in Columbia, S.C. They threw down proposed amendments to the bill that led debate to drag on more than 12 hours. “Nine wonderful individuals who have forever changed South Carolina history”. I never thought I’d see this moment.

With Governor Nikki Hayley having called on the flag to fall, the Senate passed its bill earlier in the week swiftly, cleanly, and eloquently in a process that almost all agreed would be a small, but symbolic gesture of healing for the state after the horrors at Mother Emanuel. She supports the measure, which calls for the banner to come down within 24 hours of her signature.

The governor said: “It is a new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of, a day that truly brings us all together as we continue to heal, as one people and on”. Haley had already made it clear that she would sign it.

On June 17, a church in Charleston became the scene of horrific slaughter. A white man, Dylann Roof, is accused in the murders. Roof also reportedly took photographs of himself holding the Confederate flag.

As House members deliberated well into the night, there were tears of anger and shared memories of Civil War ancestors.

The proposal would have permitted the limited display of the Confederate flag at Park Service-run cemeteries in states that observe a holiday commemorating the Confederacy, and only at the graves of rebels who died in the Civil War.

With no notes, she began by saying: “The people of Charleston deserve immediate and swift removal of that flag from these grounds”.

By all accounts, the key to the vote was a passionate speech by state Rep. Jenny Horne, a descendant of Jefferson Davis and 42-year-old lawyer.

Horne dismissed defense of the flag as an integral part of the state’s heritage.

McCollum, who represents St. Paul, said that her “no” vote on the Interior spending bill, which she says “panders to polluters”, shifted to “hell no” after Republicans late Wednesday offered up amendments to allow the Confederate flag be flown in national parks.

Boehner said the working group of Democrats and Republicans would have a broad mandate to review all issues related to Confederate symbols and then make bipartisan recommendations for the full Congress to consider.

Expecting no Democratic votes for the bill – it includes steep cuts to domestic agencies – GOP leaders then lacked the votes to approve the overall legislation if the southern conservatives did not get their way on the Confederate flag.

“Are we going to tarry in the foolishness of 150 years ago?” said Cezar McNight, a Democrat Representative who is black.

Nine of the pens used to sign the bill will go to the families of the victims of the fatal church shooting, Haley said. Black Democrats, frustrated at being asked to show grace to Civil War soldiers as the debate wore on, warned the state was embarrassing itself.

The flag, carried by Confederate troops in the 1861-1865 Civil War, is seen as a symbol of racism and slavery by many, while others proudly hail it as an emblem of Southern heritage.

Park Service spokeswoman Kathy Kupper said one of the Confederate’s grave was at Andersonville cemetery in Georgia and two each were at Shiloh in Tennessee and Vickburg in Mississippi.

“The Confederate flag is coming off the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse”, Haley said.