July 10, 2015

On Friday morning, July, 10, the Confederate battle flag (also known as the Flag of Dixie) was removed from the State House grounds in Columbia, South Carolina, where it had flown for more than half a century.

A crowd cheers as a South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard lowers the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds on July 10, 2015, in Columbia, South Carolina. Governor Nikki Haley presided over the event after signing the historic legislation the day before. Credit: © John Moore, Getty Images

The flag has long been a polarizing symbol in South Carolina, and many people demanded that it be taken down. In the years since the American Civil War (1861-1865), the flag had become a racist symbol of slavery to many African Americans and others. Later, in the early 1960′s, the flag became a symbol of opposition to the U.S. civil rights movement. However, many  Southerners have used the Confederate battle flag as an expression of Southern heritage and pride. Some believe the flag honors Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

The battle over the flag reignited last month after a white gunman allegedly killed nine African American worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston. Among the victims was the church’s pastor, South Carolina Senator Clementa Pinckney. Soon after the attack, photos surfaced of the suspect, Dylann Roof, 21, posing with the Confederate battle flag. Roof, who apparently considered the flag a symbol of white supremacy, confessed to the killings, saying he wanted to start a race war.

Early Thursday morning, the South Carolina House of Representatives voted 94-20 to take down the flag, giving final approval to a bill that passed the state senate earlier in the week. Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill into law Thursday afternoon. She used nine pens to sign the bill and said the pens would be given to the families of the nine victims of the Charleston church massacre. “It is a new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of, a day that truly brings us all together as we continue to heal, as one people and one state,” Haley said. The legislation called for the flag to be taken down within 24 hours of Haley’s signing it into law and moved to the state’s Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum for display.

At around 10 a.m. Friday, crowds cheered and broke out into song as a South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard slowly reeled the flag down and folded it. The flag was then handed to Department of Public Safety Director Leroy Smith, one of the state’s most prominent African American officials. Smith delivered the flag to the steps of the State House and handed it to a state archivist.

Other World Book articles:

• Flag
• Confederate States of America
• United States flag
• Human rights 1999 (a Back in Time article)
• State government 2000 (a Back in Time article)
• State government 2001 (a Back in Time article)

December 18, 2012

Representative Tim Scott, a conservative Republican, was chosen yesterday by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to replace outgoing Senator Jim DeMint. “It is a historic day in South Carolina,” noted Governor Haley during her announcement at the South Carolina state house in Columbia. “He earned this seat for what I know he is going to do to make South Carolina and our country proud.”

Scott will be the first African American from the South to serve in the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction and its aftermath. When Scott takes office in January, he will be the only African American currently in the Senate and the first to serve in that body since Roland Burris, a Democrat from Illinois. Burris served in 2009 and 2010, filling the seat left vacant by the election of then-Senator Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008.

Tim Scott has become the first African American member of the United States Senate from South Carolina since the late 1800's. The Senate and the House of Representatives meet in the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C. (Robert H. Glaze, Artstreet)

Scott, who has enjoyed the support of the Tea Party movement, represents a South Carolina Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before being elected to the House, he served for 13 years on the Charleston County Council and for 2 years in the South Carolina House.

Senator Jim DeMint is leaving the Senate to head the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank.

Additional World Book articles:

• Blanche Bruce
• Hiram Rhodes Revels
• Tempest in a Tea Party (a Special Report)