South Carolina removes Confederate flag from statehouse

The June 17 massacre of nine African-Americans at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, set off a national debate after images showed accused murderer Dylann Roof, 21, posing with the flag from the pro-slavery Southern states that tried to secede in the 1861-65 US Civil War.

A little after 10am this morning, highway patrol officers took down the Confederate battle flag that hung on the grounds of the Statehouse in Columbia. They cheered and chanted, “USA, USA”.

Other Chicagoans watched the flag come down while eating breakfast at the iconic Valois Restaurant.

“We were down here protesting the other day for the flag to come down”.

“I came here to show my support for the flag, for the positive side of it”, Brighton Lester said.

The Republican-controlled House scrapped a vote on permitting the Confederate flag at Park Service-run cemeteries on Thursday, a retreat under fire that only escalated a ferocious attack by Democrats complaining the banner…

“We’re here to honor the Confederate dead”, he said.

“Nine people took in someone that did not look like them or act like them and with true love and true faith and true acceptance, they sat and prayed with him for an hour”, Haley said.

“Well, this is a significant step”, Lewis said.

Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, waved a large US 50-star flag during the ceremony, which lasted just a few moments, and paraded it around the crowd afterward.

The ceremony was considered by many to be the final word on South Carolina’s long, lingering flag controversy, but I never believed that was the end of it. Howell said he’s been there several times. “The ultimate thing that brought us here is the Mother Emanuel 9”. Then she gave a pen to each of the families of the nine church shooting victims. “We’re one family”.

Friday’s removal of the Confederate flag once and for all proves that legislators and politicians from both parties agree with the sentiments stated by Bree Newsome.

Officials estimated between 8,000 and 10,000 people were on hand, according to Sherri Iacobelli of the state Department of Public Safety.

But the flag has also emerged as an icon of Americana and a memorial to those killed fighting for the Confederacy.

The bill was passed at the state House of Representatives with a 94-20 vote. “But overall I just felt like a huge weight was lifted off of the state”, she says. He said he wished more people would turn to art for inspiration.

The museum, operated by the city of Los Angeles, displays the history of the Drum Barracks, which Hahn said was the headquarters of the Union Army for Southern California and the Arizona Territory.