SC GOV. SIGNS BILL TO REMOVE CONFEDERATE RAG FROM STATEHOUSE GROUNDS

The Confederate rag will finally come down tomorrow, ending decades of pretending it was about Southern heritage.

NBC News

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Thursday signed into law a measure to remove the Confederate battle flag from the capitol, the culmination of a years-long movement that was reignited by the murders of nine members of a historically black Charleston church last month.

Before adding her signature to the legislation, Haley spoke of the black victims, who were killed by a white man after welcoming them into a prayer meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston.

Haley, a Republican, had previously opposed calls to lower the flag, and voiced support of a 2000 compromise in which the flag was moved from atop the capitol dome to a nearby flag pole. But she shifted her view amid the furor that followed the shootings. The confessed gunman is Dylann Roof, an avowed racist who had photographed himself with the flag.

Removing the flag required the approval of the state legislature, which voted this week to take it down. State Sen. Clementa Pickney, pastor of the church, was among those killed.

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said South Carolina’s “response to a horrific act of racial hatred has been a clear and decisive act of graceful unity, respect and healing for all of our citizens.”