CHARLESTON MASSACRE
S .C. governor calls on removal of
Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds
Photo by Tun Dominick/The State via AF
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley speaks during a news conference in the South Carolina State House, Monday, June 22,2015, in Columbia, S.C. Haley said that
the Confederate flag should come down from the grounds of the state capitol, reversing her position on the divisive symbol amid growing calls for it to be removed.
Also pictured are U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, front,second from left; U.S. Senator Tim Scott, second from right; and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, right.
BY SEANNAADCOX,
JEFFREY COLLINS AND
MEG KJNNARD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLESTON, S C. -South Carolina's gov
ernor declared Monday that the
Confederate flag should be removed from
the Statehouse grounds as she acknowl
edged that its use as a symbol of hatred
by the man accused of killing nine black
church members has made it too divisive
to display in such a public space.
Gov. Nikki Haley's about-face comes
just days after authorities charged Dylann
Storm Roof, 21, with murder. The white
man appeared in photos waving
Confederate flags and burning or desecrat
ing U.S. flags, and purportedly wrote of
fomenting racial violence. Survivors told
police he hurled racial insults during the
attack.
"The murderer now locked up in
Charleston said he hoped his actions would
start a race war. We have an opportunity to
show that not only was he wrong, but that
just the opposite is happening," Haley said,
flanked by Democrats and Republicans,
blacks and whites who joined her call.
"My hope is that by removing a sym
bol that divides us, we can move our state
forward in harmony, and we can honor the
nine blessed souls who are now in
Heaven," Haley said.
The massacre inside the Emanuel
African Methodist Episcopal Church has
suddenly made removing the flag - long
thought politically impossible in South
Carolina - the go-to position, even for com
servative Republican politicians.
Haley was flanked by Republican U.S.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, now running for
president, as well as South Carolina's jun
ior Republican senator, Tim Scott, and
Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, both of
whom are black. Within moments, her call
was echoed by the Republican Party chair
man and the top GOP lawmaker. Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The governor's declarations sparked
action in other arenas as well on Monday:
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn
called for the Confederate emblem to be
removed from the state flag, becoming the
first top-tier Republican to do so.
In Tennessee, both Democrats and
Republicans called for the removal of a
bust of Confederate general and early Ku
Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest
from an alcove outside the Senate's cham
bers.
And Wal-Mart announced Monday that
it is removing any items from its store
shelves and website that feature the
Confederate flag.
Haley urged South Carolina's GOP-led
House and Senate to debate the issue no
later than this summer. If not, she said she
will call a special session and force them to
resolve it. "I will use that authority for the
purpose of the legislature removing the
flag from the Statehouse grounds," she
said.
South Carolina House Minority Leader
Todd Rutherford says he's confident after
talking to members of both parties that the
Confederate flag will be taken down with
in the next two months.
"A lot of people understand this is a
moment we have to respond to,"' said Rep.
Rick Quinn, a Republican and former
House majority leader who said he will
vote to take it down.
Lawmakers have proposed moving it
to the state-run Confederate Relic Room
and Military Museum.
Making any changes to the banner
requires a two-thirds supermajority in both
houses under the terms of a 15-year-old
deal that moved it from atop the
Statehouse to a position next to a monu
ment to Confederate soldiers out front.
The last governor who called for the
flag's removal. Republican David Beasley,
was hounded out of office in 1998 by the
Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group's
influence also doomed his front-running
Senate campaign for the seat won by
Republican Jim DeMint.
"Do not associate the cowardly actions
*
of a racist to our Confederate Banner," the
group's South Carolina commander,
Leland Summers, said in a statement.
"There is absolutely no link between The
Charleston Massacre and The Confederate
Memorial Banner. Don't try to create one."
As recently as November 2014, a poll
of 852 people by Winthrop University
found 42 percent of South Carolina resi
dents strongly believed the flag should
stay, while only 26 percent strongly
believed it should be removed.
But South Carolina's population is
slowly becoming more diverse, more edu
cated, wealthier and more exposed to peo
ple from outside the state. And the pollster,
Scott Huffman, predicts that his August
2015 survey will show that people who
didn't have strong feelings before "will
have flipped and now prefer it to come
down."
Haley acknowledged there are very
different views about what it symbolizes.
"For many people in our state, the flag
stands for traditions that are noble,"she
said. "The hate-filled murderer who mas
sacred our brothers and sisters in
Charleston has a sick and twisted view of
the flag. In no way does he reflect the peo
ple in our state who respect, and in many
ways, revere it."
For many others, "the flag is a deeply
offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive
past," she said.
South Carolina can survive and thrive
"while still being home to both of those
viewpoints."
Adcox reported from Columbia; Steve
Peoples contributed from Washington,
DC.
Songs, prayer grace 1st service at church since shooting
BY PHILLIP LUCAS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLESTON, S.C ? Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church opened its
tall, wooden doors to the world Sunday, June 21, embracing strangers who walked in
from the street or tuned in from home for the first worship service since a white gunman
was accused of killing nine black church members.
It was that same hospitality that allowed the suspected gunman to be welcomed into
a Bible study for about an hour before he allegedly stood up, made racially offensive
remarks and opened fire in the church known as "Mother Emanuel" because it is one of
the oldest black congregations in the South.
"I was so pleased when authorities told us you can go back into "Mother Emanuel'
to worship," said the Rev. Norvel Goff, a presiding elder of the 7th District AME Church
in South Carolina, before adding a note of defiance to a service sprinkled with themes of
love, recovery and healing. For added security, police officers stood watch over worship
pers.
Goff was appointed to lead the historic Charleston church after Emanuel's senior pas
tor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, was fatally shot during the massacre. A black sheet was
draped over Pinckney's usual chair, which sat empty. At least one parishioner kneeled
down in front of it and prayed.
Pipckney was also a state senator and married father of two children. Goff acknowl
edged Father's Day and said: ""The only way evil can triumph is for good folks to sit
down and do nothing*"
The slayings have renewed calls for the flag to be removed from the South Carolina
Statehouse grounds, in part because photographs of Roof in a purported manifesto
showed him holding Confederate flags. The 2,500-word manifesto also contained hate
filled writings.
?Less than two miles from the church, someone vandalized a Confederate monument,
spray-painting ""Black Lives Matter" on the statue. City workers used a tarp to cover up
the graffiti, police said.
Photos on loca| news websites from before the tarp was put up showed the graffiti in
bright red paint, along with the message ""This is the problem, ? RACIST."
Around the country, pastors asked people to pray for Charleston.
Associated Press contributors include David Goldman, Emily Masters, Allen Breed,
Josh Replogle and John Mone.
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