South Carolina House votes to remove Confederate flag from state grounds

It should get to Gov. Nikki Haley’s desk before the end of the day.

The flag, a fixture on Capitol grounds for half a century, will be lowered at 10 a.m. Friday, Haley said. Ms Haley has said she will sign it.

Democrats didn’t want any new flag going up because it “will be the new vestige of racism”, Rutherford said.

“I was raised here. And only 25 percent of the whites in the South had anything to do economically, while at the same time there were four slave states that remained in the union during the Civil War – Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware”. “We can’t hide from the hard truths about race and justice”.

“The flag has been adopted knowingly and consciously by government officials seeking to assert their commitment to black subordination”, he said. “It’s flying for the wrong reasons”. We do not care that someone used this symbol of hate to slay eight innocent people who were worshipping their God. At the base of the Statehouse’s Confederate monument, the rebel flag flies atop a 30-foot (9-meter) pole. I never thought I’d see this moment. Clementa Pinckney, the pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church, who was gunned down as his wife and daughter locked themselves in an office.

The debate about the proper place of confederate symbols in the US has been elevated since the shooting of nine members of an African-American church in Charleston, S.C., allegedly by a white supremacist.

“It doesn’t represent heritage”. “Would it have been taken down?” Opponents of the flag have called for years for its removal from Statehouse grounds, and South Carolina lawmakers this week voted to take it down.

Earlier this week, the South Carolina state legislature voted to remove the flag from above the statehouse. “To be leaders – not individuals who cower in fear of a few narrow-minded Americans who aren’t aware that the South lost the war 150 years ago”. She referred to the victims of the massacre who welcomed the alleged shooter among them and who prayed with him for an hour. “That love and faith was so strong that it brought grace to them and the families”, Haley said.

He added, “I’m perplexed”.

Within minutes of the announcement, NCAA board of governors chairman Kirk Schulz issued a statement commending South Carolina’s lawmakers for taking the action.

The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is located a few blocks from the State House.

As House members deliberated, there were tears of anger and shared memories of Civil War ancestors. Flag supporters talked about grandparents passing down family treasures.

In 2000, the chairman of the NCAA Executive Committee at the time said the flag created “an inhospitable environment for many coaches and student-athletes, and for some, it is an intolerable environment”. Neal said.

“For the widow of Sen”.

The bill ultimately passed by a 93-27 vote – well above the two-thirds super-majority needed to make changes to the state’s “heritage” symbols.

Earlier today, Republican Rep. Ken Calvert tacked a last-minute amendment onto a bill that would have removed the Confederate flag from from federal sites and gift shops.

“It’s just like the conclusion of the war itself”, Pitts said Thursday after the vote.

“Now this is about our children”, Haley told the audience, saying that after the emotions of the past weeks have faded, the response to the violence in Charleston will be a proud chapter of the state’s history.