United States civil rights group votes to end 15-year economic boycott of South Carolina

The Confederate flag was not commonly used by country artists until the late 1960s and through the ’70s and ’80s, when it was adopted by some Southern country and rock artists who identified as outlaw musicians appealing to blue-collar fans, Oermann said. “You can criticize them for failing to conceptualize it in a meaningful way, but you still have to say that they are talking about race and an ideal of America that is anti-racist”, she said. “The issue was settled, and the nation came back together to move on”.

Ms Haley said: “No one should ever drive by the Statehouse and feel pain”. Their families’ grace-filled response in the face of such extraordinary loss touched the soul of South Carolina and stirred legislators to move the Confederate flag to a museum where it has belonged all along.

In 2000, the NAACP announced an economic boycott of South Carolina and protesters marched on the state capital.

Mr Obama last month delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Mr Pinckney.

The flag was the battle emblem of the southern states during the American Civil War but is now seen by many as a symbol of slavery and racism.

DINWIDDIE, Va. (WWBT) With flags held high and Engines roaring, almost 200 people came out standing in solidarity to pay tribute and honor the Confederate Flag.

The white man accused of killing nine black people in a Charleston church.

Patsy Eaddy, a black woman, said there was a “sense of embarrassment” of seeing the flag still flying.

By law, the flag outside the State House could only be removed with the approval of two-thirds of South Carolina’s Senate and House of Representatives.

NAACP president and CEO Cornell Brooks led the effort to end the boycott, and the organization passed an emergency resolution during its annual meeting in Philadelphia on Friday – the same day South Carolina governor Nikki Haley signed the bill that mandated the removal of the Confederate flag. FBI Director James Comey outlined a series of missed opportunities and incomplete paperwork that allowed the transaction to take place.