Clemson social media experts say the response on social media following the Charleston shooting tragedy was even larger than the confederate flag.
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He tells the Sun Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1GetSKl ) he “put it up as a joke to see if anyone would notice” and it only took 15 minutes before he started receiving calls. Charlie Daniels wrote a long column on his website addressing the most recent controversy over the flag.
The flag he flew was 4 feet by 6 feet, far smaller than the American flag above it, which he claims is the largest in Florida.
All the cars in Greene County waving the Confederate Flag were there also to donate canned goods for a food drive, but not everyone was in support of the group waiving the flags.
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.
The Confederate battle flag, flown by forces of the Southern states during the 1861-1865 Civil War, once again became a controversial symbol after the Charleston killings. “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. Their mostly agricultural economies relied on black slaves and for many, the flag which marked their secession has remained an icon of racism and enslavement.
Supporters of the flag were disappointed, but resigned.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) ended its boycott against the state in an emergency resolution, calling the flag “a symbol of racial, ethnic and religious hatred, oppression, and murder which offends untold millions of people”.
There were cheers and applause in South Carolina as the Confederate Battle Flag was lowered and removed from the capitol grounds. The busy street that runs in front of the Statehouse is still open, but police plan to close it before the ceremony.
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NAACP president Cornell William Brooks said Thursday that the church massacre last month and the “brutality of this moment spoke to the country in ways that a boycott alone would not do”.
