After more than half a century, South Carolina is finally removing the Confederate flag from its Capitol grounds.
“South Carolina can remove the stain from our lives,” said 64-year-old African American S.C. House Rep. Joe Neal following the decision, which came after 13 hours of heated debate. “I never thought in my lifetime I would see this.”
The South Carolina House approved a bill overnight to take down the flag, which will be carried out once it’s signed by Republican Gov. Nikki Haley in the coming days. Haley recently reversed her position on the flag, though many Republicans have staunchly opposed calls to abolish the historically racist banner.
“It is a new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of, a day that truly brings us all together as we continue to heal, as one people and one state,” said Haley shortly after the exhausting process to approve legislation, which passed 93 to 27.
The flag is especially contentious in South Carolina following last month’s mass shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The shooter, Dylann Roof, often posed in photographs with the Confederate flag and, according to witnesses, carried out the attack because he believed blacks were raping white women and taking over the country.
Now if only we could invest the same energy and passion toward fighting racism on the ground-level…
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