| New York Times | - |
COLUMBIA,
S.C. - The South Carolina House of Representatives early Thursday gave
final approval to a bill to remove the Confederate battle flag from the
grounds of the State House.
S.C. House Debate Confederate Flag
COLUMBIA,
S.C. — The South Carolina House of Representatives early Thursday gave
final approval to a bill to remove the Confederate battle flag from the
grounds of the State House. The measure moves next to the desk of Gov.
Nikki R. Haley, who previously pledged to sign it into law.
The
action by the House, after hours of emotional and contentious debate
that nearly derailed the legislation, means that the battle flag, which
has flown somewhere on the grounds of the State House for more than 50
years, could be lowered by the weekend.
The
final House vote, taken just minutes after a preliminary tally, was 94
to 20, well beyond the two-thirds majority that was required to alter
the flag and its placement at the State House. The State Senate approved
the same proposal on Tuesday.
After
Ms. Haley’s approval, the flag will be moved to the state-supported
Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum. The legislative action came
just more than three weeks after the massacre of nine black churchgoers
at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which the
authorities have described as a hate crime.
The
vote represented the collapse of a 15-year-old compromise that had
allowed the flag to remain on the grounds of the State House. But in the
aftermath of the Charleston attack, a bipartisan coalition in Columbia,
the capital, demanded that the flag be removed.
Before
the vote, legislators spent much of Wednesday locked in an emotional
debate about the proposal. Supporters of removing the flag fended off
amendments that could have jeopardized the bill’s prospects of final
passage.
After
photographs became public of the suspect in the Charleston shooting,
Dylann Roof, posing with the Confederate battle flag, many lawmakers
from both parties began to demand that the flag at the State House be
taken down for good.
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