The reversal seemed unthinkable just a month ago.
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While the confederate flag has been removed from the state house grounds in South Carolina, the debate over the fate of the flag in federal cemeteries continues.
South Carolina’s state senate voted 37-3 to remove the flag shortly before the state’s house concurred – though more reluctantly – in a 94-20 vote.
Activists have been pushing for the flag to be removed for decades, after it was placed on the capitol dome in the 1960s. Now, even that flagpole was removed Friday afternoon.
But the flag has also emerged as an icon of Americana and a memorial to those killed fighting for the Confederacy.
Earlier, she called it a great day for the state in an interview with NBC’s “Today” television show. Some people are carrying Confederate flags, but more are carrying signs saying the flag should come down.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – With the emotional debates and protests behind them, South Carolina officials are preparing to quietly remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse where it has flown for more than a half-century. As for the 15-year-long economic boycott in South Carolina and whether it will be lifted now that the Confederate flag has been lowered, that’s something that board members will address during the convention which lasts until Wednesday.
Pope said: “We’re all gray”.
MARIA CALEF: Take down the flag. They say the flag became a way to reject the 1960s Civil Rights movement to achieve racial equality.
The Confederate flag was once a familiar symbol in country music, representing the rural South and the renegade spirit of artists such as David Allan Coe and Hank Williams Jr.
“This brings joy to some people, a solemn occasion to others”, Dawson said.
Haley had pledged that the symbol that engenders much emotion among white Southerns and black people would be lowered “with dignity”.
The Confederate flag removal ceremony saw a large number of people waiting to bear witness to the event, with some waiting in the heat on lawn chairs they brought from home.
But for WCSC CBS 5 anchor Ann McGill, a life-long South Carolinian, the history of the moment led her to tears on air.
States across the US are moving on without their Confederate symbols.
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Today, a day after signing that legislation into law, Haley watched the ceremony from the steps of the Statehouse. “The NAACP convention is needless to say one of the most prestigious conventions we ever book”. Jackson said. “I’m here because my grandfather, right here”.
