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South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Monday called on lawmakers to
take down the Confederate battle flag in the state capital, a week after a
white gunman allegedly shot dead nine black worshipers at a historic church.
The flag that has flown at the State House grounds in Columbia for the
past half century became a fresh focus of criticism in recent days after the
Charleston church massacre, which federal authorities are investigating as a
hate crime and an act of terrorism by accused gunman Dylann Roof, 21, who posed
with the flag in photos posted online.
"It's time to move the flag from the capital grounds," Haley,
a Republican, told a news conference in the state capital, about 100 miles (161
km) from the shooting.
"The flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent
the future of our great state."
Haley called on lawmakers, whose normal legislative year wraps up this
week, to address the issue over the summer and said she would order a special
session if they did not.
The shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church came in a
year of intense debate over U.S. race relations following the killings of
unarmed black men by police officers, which has sparked a reinvigorated civil
rights movement under the "Black Lives Matter" banner.
Opponents of flying the flag at the State House grounds consider it an
emblem of slavery that has become a rallying symbol for racism and xenophobia
in the United States. Supporters, who fly the flag at their homes, wear it on
clothing and put it on bumper stickers, see it is a symbol of the South's
history and culture, as well a memorial to the roughly 480,000 Confederate
Civil War casualties. That figure includes the dead, wounded and prisoners.
A group of both black and white leaders called for a rally Tuesday at
the State House in Columbia to bring their demand directly to lawmakers.
"The only flag we should be worried about is the U.S. flag,"
said Carl Smith, a 29-year-old black man, standing outside the church that was
the site of the shooting. "Why would you support a flag that represents
division instead of a flag that unites people?"
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