South Carolina Senate has voted to remove the Confederate flag from a pole on Statehouse grounds.
The 37-3 vote Monday allows the state to remove the flag and the flagpole where it flies as soon as it passes the House and is signed by Gov. Nikki Haley.
The bill must pass a two-thirds vote, which is likely to be held Tuesday.
Monday's vote comes less than a week after the 15th anniversary of South Carolina taking the flag off the Capitol dome where it flew since the early 1960s and moving it to beside a monument honoring Confederate soldiers.
Lawmakers had largely ignored the flag until the killing of nine black people during a Bible study at a historic African-American church on June 17.
South Carolina state senators also rejected an amendment that would allow the Confederate flag to continue to fly outside the Statehouse -- but only on Confederate Memorial Day. They've also voted down a suggestion to leave the fate of the flag up to a popular vote. They're continuing debate on other amendments dealing with the future of the flag.
One Republican senator who wants to leave the flag in place says the flag has been misused by people like Dylann Roof, who's charged with nine counts of murder for last month's shootings at a historic black church.
But among the senators who believe the flag no longer represents the valor of Southern soldiers are a white lawmaker who, for decades, fought attempts to remove the flag from Statehouse grounds, and a black senator whose family was also in South Carolina during the Civil War.
Republican Sen. Larry Martin, who is white, says he changed his mind after the shootings of nine blacks at the church in Charleston.
Sen. Darrell Jackson, who is black, helped write the compromise that took the flag off the Statehouse dome in 2000 and put it on a pole in the capitol's front lawn. He says he regrets that he didn't go further to get rid of the flag completely.
Is this a satire ?
Anyhow, S.C. House votes 94-20 to remove #ConfederateFlag from S.C. State House. Headed to Gov. @nikkihaley's desk for signature. #thestate (Edit: Approved)
So what happens to KKK protest tomorrow ? They reconvene on July 10th for what ?
Topic: South Carolina Senate votes to remove Confederate flag! (Read 6935 times)