S.C. House OKs Removal of Confederate Flag From State Capitol Building

Jet, May 29, 2000

Ending days of heated debate, South Carolina legislators recently approved a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome in Columbia, SC.

Saying they were tired of being a "national laughing stock," a narrow majority voted (63-56)to remove the flag and put it up at a confederate soldier monument on the Statehouse grounds.

The state Senate already has approved a similar measure and Gov. Jim Hodges, who helped rally support for it in the House, has said he supports the removal.

It proved to be a hard-fought compromise because hard-core flag supporters and many members of the House Black Caucus were against it.

Flag supporters wanted to keep the Confederate flag atop the Capitol, while Black legislators didn't want a new flag put at the confederate monument located at one of the busiest intersections in Columbia. They and the NAACP, which had vowed to continue pushing for economic sanctions against the state, claim the flag would be in too prominent a place.

The House version of the bill will return to the Senate which will work out minor differences in the two versions.

Ironically, the bill was passed on the first observance of Confederate Memorial Day, a new state holiday which was authorized by a bill recently signed by Gov. Hodges (JET, May 22) that also authorizes a permanent Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday.

At JET press time, state officials broke ground for a $1 million monument to honor Black South Carolinians.