Confederate Flag Removed from South Carolina State House

Yesterday, many people came to get a final glimpse of the Statehouse flag.

Outside the Capitol, people who supported taking down the flag vastly outnumbered those who were upset about its removal.

In a short ceremony, members of an official honor guard lowered the flag and rolled it tightly. They handed it to a black trooper who brought it to the Statehouse steps.

“It was kind of like the furling of the flags at the end of the American Civil War, from the defeated Confederacy”, Roberson said. But it was kept there as a protest against the Civil Rights movement.

Crowds wanting to be part of the event gathered around the red battle flag with a blue cross (X) with 13 white stars representing each of the breakaway states on the State House grounds and jammed the lobby to witness the signing. In a 2000 compromise, the flag was moved to a flagpole on the Capitol grounds, and the state legislature was given the sole power to lower it.

Thousands of people showed up for the transfer. But it is moral cowardice to ignore this flag’s history of white supremacy and treason, to pretend it symbolizes anything other than a heritage of hate and human oppression.

Organizers didn’t give out details of what will happen Friday, but said the removal will be short, simple and dignified. Onlookers were kept behind barriers as law enforcement stood guard near the flagpole, located on a patch of green grass near a Confederate memorial.

Now, the flag is coming down completely, 23 days after the massacre of state Sen. Then she gave a pen to each of the families of the nine church shooting victims. The successful push for the rebel banner’s removal came after Dylann Storm Roof, the white suspect charged with murder, appeared in widely seen photos holding Confederate flags.

“But be clear, the prospect of a bigger boycott, more economic sanctions, were effective”, he said.

Boehner was forced to halt consideration of a government funding measure after it became engulfed by the Confederate flag controversy and whether it was appropriate to display the flags at national cemeteries where Confederate soldiers are buried.

Supporters of the flag were disappointed, but resigned.

States across the nation are moving on without their Confederate symbols. Lampley said she is a historical re-enactor who fears that removing symbols such as the flag dishonors her relatives who fought for the Southern cause. “It feels like we, as black people, are more united and seeing that if we all stick together, there’s going to be a change that’s made”. “We must leave our country a little better for all of us”. “They stopped looking at their differences and started looking at their similarities”.