Interesting to learn the history of developments with the Confederate flag situation at the state capitol building...
https://www.cnn.com/2015/06/21/politics/south-carolina-confederate-flag-debate/The politics of the flag are complicated in South Carolina. A November poll from Winthrop University found that 73% of whites in the state want the flag to remain where it is. The same poll reported that 61% of blacks want it taken down.
"If we look at what the Confederate flag meant in the past, you can't help but feel negative thoughts, especially now," said 24-year-old Meghan Delaney. "It should have been taken down a long time ago. If not now, when?"
For some whites, many of whom can trace their ancestry back to the Civil War, the flag represents heritage and pride.
"It's a symbol of family and my ancestors who defended the state from invasion. It was about standing up to a central government," said Chris Sullivan, who is a member of the Sons of the Confederacy. "The things that our ancestors fought for were not novel and they really are the same issues we have today."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/south-carolina-anti-confederate-flag-protesters-rally-outside-capitol-n380236...The flag was raised at a monument to Confederate soldiers on the State House grounds, surrounded by an iron fence, as a compromise in 2000. For four decades before that, it flew atop the Capitol dome itself, under the American and state flags.
Lawmakers gathered in Columbia on Tuesday for a special budget session. Just adding the flag to the agenda would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.
By law, removing the flag would also require a two-thirds vote, although U.S. Rep. James Clyburn has said that law could be overturned by simple majority.
The Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston started a count of where lawmakers stand on the flag. On Tuesday, votes to remove it were running about even with lawmakers who had yet to respond.
https://www.cnn.com/2015/06/19/us/south-carolina-confederate-flag-still-flies/Back in 2000, civil rights activists successfully lobbied to have a much larger Confederate flag removed from the Capitol dome. But there was a compromise. The South Carolina Heritage Act decreed that just about all other tributes to Confederate history would be virtually untouchable. The only way to change anything of that nature -- including the smaller flag that was erected on the State House lawn -- would be to gain the endorsement of two-thirds of lawmakers.
That's not likely here or in any other place where some have said for years that the flag is not about racism; it is about Southern pride and heritage.