Confederate flag should go, says governor

CHARLESTON, S.C. — South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said Monday the Confederate flag should be removed from the grounds of the state capitol, reversing her position on the divisive symbol amid growing calls for it to be removed.

The Republican’s about-face comes after nine black church members were gunned down, allegedly by a young white man who embraced the flag as a symbol of white supremacy.

“One hundred and fifty years after the end of the Civil War, the time has come,” Haley said after rousing applause, surrounded by Democrats and Republican lawmakers. “That flag, while an integral part of the past, does not represent the future of our great state.”

The flag has flown in front of the state capitol for 15 years after being moved from atop the Statehouse dome.

U.S. Sens. Lindsay Graham and Tim Scott, an AfricanAmerican appointed by Haley, were standing with Haley during her announcement. When she finished, she hugged Scott and South Carolina’s only other black congressman, Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn.

The announcement came after state lawmakers met urgently with each other and the governor. The head of the Republican National Committee has also called for its removal.

State House Speaker Jay Lucas said in a statement that last week’s “terrorizing act of violence shook the very core of every South Carolinian.”

“Moving South Carolina forward from this terrible tragedy requires a swift resolution of this issue,” he said earlier in the day.

A growing number of religious and political leaders said they would push for the flag’s removal Tuesday during a rally in the capitol. The White House said U.S. President Barack Obama respects the state of South Carolina’s authority to decide the issue, but believes the flag belongs in a museum.

“The flag got appropriated by hate groups. We can’t put it in a public place where it can give any oxygen to hate-filled people,” said Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., a Democrat.

But the conservative politicians who have led South Carolina for a quarter-century have rebuffed many previous calls to remove the flag.

The last governor to take this political risk, Republican David Beasley, was hounded out of office in 1998 by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and they made sure his political career was over thereafter.

The group announced Monday that it will vigorously fight any effort to remove the flag now.

Sen. Darrell Jackson helped broker a compromise in 2000 that moved the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome to a Confederate monument outside.

The compromise has kept the Confederate flag flying high outside the Statehouse since the shooting, even after state and U.S. flags were lowered to halfstaff to honour the victims.

It also means that when the state aims Wednesday to honour Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church’s slain senior pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, by welcoming thousands of people to file past his coffin inside the Statehouse, the mourners will likely see the Confederate flag on their way in or out.

This symbolism has angered many, particularly now that photos surfaced showing Dylann Storm Roof burning one American flag and stepping on another, while waving and posing provocatively with Confederate banners.

“Do not associate the cowardly actions of a racist to our Confederate Banner,” South Carolina Commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Leland Summers said in a statement.

“There is absolutely no link between The Charleston Massacre and The Confederate Memorial Banner. Don’t try to create one.”