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South Carolina Removes Confederate Flag

A symbol of bitter and divisive racism has been defeated. The Confederate flag has been removed from the South Carolina state house.

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After swift passage by the South Carolina Senate and House of Representatives, Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill on Friday to remove the Confederate flag from state capitol grounds for good. Soon after affixing her signature, the flag was taken down.

Blacks and whites, the old and the young, civil rights veterans and ordinary Southerners who grew up with the symbols of a segregated South were on hand to witness the moment in history. They stood quietly at first, then erupted into spontaneous chants of “Take it down!” At the precise moment when the flag was removed and its symbolism demolished, the crowd screamed with excitement, chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

“It’s a long time coming,” said Edward Dunn, 47, an African-American grocery clerk who traveled with his wife and 2 children to see the flag come down. “It just shows that South Carolina is trying to do something to unify the races.”

On Sunday, the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, which is the site where 9 African-American churchgoers were shot and killed by a Confederate flag toting racist, sang songs of praise and jubilation over the removal of the flag.

“I do want to take this opportunity to thank the governor of South Carolina,” said interim pastor, Rev. Norvel Goff. “Thank you for taking down the flag, because we are one people, one nation, under God.”

In light of the flag’s removal, the national board of directors of the NAACP voted on Saturday to end its 15-year boycott of South Carolina.

“Emergency resolution passed by the NAACP National Board of Directors at #NAACP106, ending the 15 year South Carolina boycott,” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said on its Twitter feed. The resolution was approved during the NAACP’s annual convention in Philadelphia.

National Collegiate Athletic Association president Mark Emmert said his organization was removing all barriers to South Carolina hosting championship-level college sports events now that the Confederate flag has been removed from the state capitol grounds.  The NCAA had prohibited pre-determined post-season competitions in South Carolina because of the flag.

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However, not everyone was celebrating South Carolina’s removal of the flag.

On Sunday, an 8-mile convoy of pickup trucks, motorcycles and cars wound through the town of Ocala, Florida to display their support for the Confederate flag and their anger against South Carolina for removing it.

Horns blared while hundreds of rebel flags fluttered from more than 1,500 vehicles. According to a police estimate, at least 4,500 people turned out for the “Florida Southern Pride Ride,” with vehicles from states across the South and as far away as California.

“That flag has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people,” said 38-year-old David Stone, who organized the event. “It doesn’t symbolize hate unless you think it’s hate – and that’s your problem, not mine.”

The Confederate flag was raised atop the South Carolina State House dome in 1961 as part of centennial commemorations of the American Civil War. Critics said its placement was a sign of opposition by politicians to the black civil rights movement at the time.  Until last Friday, the flag has flown atop the South Carolina state house for more than 50 years.

OK WASSUP! tracks the top news today,
including South Carolina officially removing the
Confederate flag from the state house grounds.