South Carolina to remove Confederate flag from Statehouse
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Confederacy is in retreat once again.
At a packed signing ceremony Thursday, Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds three weeks after a white supremacist allegedly shot and killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston.
The shock of those deaths June 17, made more disturbing by photos of the suspect proudly holding that battle flag, prompted a national re-examination of the extent to which Confederate tributes, despised by many black Americans, penetrate public life.
The legislation Haley made into law came after days of dramatic action in the Statehouse, hours of fiery pleas and angry demands by lawmakers – with Wednesday’s debate drifting into the wee hours of Thursday.
“I’m starting to understand how Lee felt at Appomattox,” one South Carolina Republican, state Rep. Michael Pitts, muttered to fellow lawmakers Wednesday night as they repeatedly shot down his attempts to derail the bill.
The nation watched, and acted.
• In Washington on Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives fell into an uproar as Democrats and Republicans battled over a budget amendment to ban displays of the Confederate flag in national parklands.
• In New Orleans, Mayor Mitch Landrieu asked the City Council to relocate four prominent monuments and rename the Jefferson Davis Parkway after someone other than the slavery-defending Confederate president.
• In Long Beach, California, an elementary school brought the wrath of Democratic state Sen. Steve Glazer, who was appalled that it is named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Glazer introduced a bill this week that would ban naming such local and state properties after Confederate leaders.
During the final marathon debate in South Carolina’s House of Representatives, some white Republican lawmakers defended the flag as a symbol of their heritage.
That drew a passionate rebuke from one Republican, Rep. Jenny Anderson Horne, a white lawyer who said her ancestor was Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America.
“I’m sorry, I have heard enough about heritage,” Horne told her colleagues. “Remove this flag, and do it today, because this issue is not getting any better with age.”
As lawmakers ultimately guided the bill toward a final approval of 94-20, one Republican, Rep. Christopher Corley, sarcastically waved a small white flag at his colleagues and suggested making it the unofficial symbol of the GOP.
This morning, the flag comes down.