Governor Signs Bill to Remove Confederate Flag from SC Capitol

The flag will be displayed at the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum roughly a mile down Gervais Street.

The flag was taken down by a state Highway Patrol honor guard. They handed it a third trooper.

Haley called for the flag’s removal within days of the massacre. The flag’s removal was approved 94 to 20. He advised other states considering the removal of Confederate symbols to “proceed carefully”.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley entered the signing ceremony to the sound of applause and then she used 13 pens to sign the historic bill.

Meanwhile, as South Carolina prepared to lower the flag, debate reached fever pitch in Washington, where Republicans had introduced a controversial amendment, due for a vote Thursday, to preserve the right to place the flag on graves on federal property.

Flag opponents say it originally was put up over the Capitol to defy racial integration. Now, even that flagpole will be torn down, but no timetable is set on that. At the base of the Statehouse’s Confederate monument, the rebel flag had flown atop a pole since it was moved there from the Statehouse dome in a 2000 compromise. Thousands of people showed up for the flag’s transfer. “Remove this flag, and do it today”. The shootings reignited calls to remove Confederate symbols nationwide.

“And while the people of South Carolina move one step past this awful tragedy, many House Republicans want to take our nation one hundred and fifty years back”. They are wearing white gloves.

In the CBS interview, his first with a national media outlet since he launched his candidacy through his website earlier this month, Webb said there’s been a great sense of growth of unity in the South since the civil-rights era. It is being brought down after nine black church members were killed during a shooting last month.

He says he feels betrayed by his state leaders. Cindy Lampley clutched a poster showing photos of ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.

Staten Island Rep. Daniel Donovan punted on a resolution Thursday to remove all state banners bearing the Confederate flag from the House side of the U.S. Capitol.

On Friday, artist Ernest Lee came to the Statehouse with a framed portrait of all nine victims. “Sure they will. But as far as this flag symbolizing a state or local government, that day is over”. She was flanked by lawmakers – both black and white – and what began as a somber ceremony quickly turned celebratory as the crowd sang, “Na, na, na, na”.

“The South has never been white against black, per se”, Webb contended. And if any of you vote to amend, you are ensuring that this flag will fly beyond Friday.

“But the statehouse – that’s an area that belongs to everyone”, she added.

“The whole world is asking, is South Carolina really going to change, or will it hold to an ugly tradition of prejudice and discrimination and hide behind heritage as an excuse for it?”