Photo courtesy Charleston Post and Courier
Members of the South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard remove the Confederate battle flag from the monument in front of the Statehouse in Columbia on Friday. The flag will now be housed in the state Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.

SC legislators vote to
move Confederate flag

By Pamela Dodson
Staff Reporter
pdodson@thepccourier.com

COLUMBIA — After a long and controversial battle, a final vote made by the S.C. House on Thursday approved the removal of the Confederate flag from the State Capitol grounds.

Normally only a formality, the vote was the end to a historic decision for South Carolina. After 15 years, the flag was removed and will now be displayed in the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum just down the road from the Capitol building.

The Confederate battle flag, which had flown atop the Statehouse building from 1961 until 2000, when it was moved to a monument located on Statehouse grounds, has long been a controversial image across the nation.

The flag was taken down following South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s request that the flag be removed after the shooting deaths of nine church parishioners at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on June 17.

Both the Senate and the House overwhelmingly voted to take the battle flag down. On Friday morning, a ceremony was held in which the flag was lowered and taken to its new home.

When the final votes were cast, the Senate tally totaled 36-3 in favor of the removal. When the bill made its way to the House of Representatives, many amendments to the original bill were offered before it finally passed 94-20.

The Pickens County delegation of Senator Larry Martin and Representatives Neal Collins and Gary Clary all voted in favor of removing the flag. Representative Davey Hiott didn’t cast a vote, as he was out of town on a mission trip with his church.
“It became evident to me that others in our state continued to see the flag on the Statehouse grounds much differently less than 36 hours after our collective hearts were broken over the senseless murder of nine innocent people at the Emanuel AME Church,” Martin said in a statement sent to The Courier. “I could no longer vote to keep the confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds if it caused such pain to our fellow South Carolinians, whom we are commanded to love.”