Lawmakers to debate Confederate flag
HATE: Protesters want it removed in wake of killings
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina lawmakers took their first step toward removing the Confederate battle flag from their Statehouse grounds Tuesday as protesters outside demanded the flag come down in response to the hate-crime killings of nine people in their historic black church.
South Carolina House Speaker Jay Lucas described the killings a “terrorizing act of violence shook the very core of every South Carolinian.” The measure enabling lawmakers to debate the flag removal later this summer needed two-thirds approval. It passed the House by a vote of 103-10. The Senate later approved it with a voice vote.
The first senator to call for moving the flag to a museum was the son of South Carolina’s most powerful politician of the last century, U.S. senator and segregationist standardbearer Strom Thurmond. State Sen. Paul Thurmond, a Charleston Republican, said he loves his ancestors, but supports moving the flag to a museum. But he said he isn’t proud of a heritage that included holding people in bondage and wants to send a message to anyone who might proudly display the banner before committing racial hate crimes.
“I can respond with love, unity and kindness,” Thurmond said, “and maybe show others that the motivations for a future attack of hate will not be tolerated, will not result in a race war, will not divide us, but rather strengthen our resolve to come together.”
Gov. Nikki Haley’s unexpected call for the flag to come down also reverberated around the South Tuesday, as a growing number of other politicians announced their own against the rebel standard.