As South Carolina honors victims, Alabama lowers its flags
... Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley became the first southern governor to use his executive power to remove Confederate banners, as four flags with secessionist symbols were taken down Wednesday from a large monument to rebel soldiers outside that state's capitol.
"It has become a distraction all over the country right now," Bentley said. The iconic Confederate battle flag in particular "is offensive to some people because unfortunately, it's like the swastika; some people have adopted that as part of their hate-filled groups."
But in South Carolina, making any changes to "heritage" symbols requires a two-thirds supermajority of both houses of the state legislature, and while lawmakers voted overwhelmingly for a debate later this summer, few wanted to risk ugly words during a week of funerals.
Brought to the capitol in a horse-drawn carriage, Pinckney's open coffin was displayed under the dome where he served the state for nearly 20 years....
To honor him, people had to file past a statue of former Vice President John C. Calhoun, who argued in the 1820s and 1830s that slavery was a "positive good," and that states should be able to decide not to follow federal laws they don't like.
The last person to lie under the dome was former Gov. Carroll Campbell in December 2005. Pinckney will be the first African-American given the honor at least since Reconstruction.
Prodded by Gov. Nikki Haley's call to move the flag to a museum, South Carolina's lawmakers overwhelmingly agreed to revisit an uneasy compromise that has held for 15 years, since mass protests succeeded in moving the flag from atop the dome to its current spot out front.
A growing number of politicians have since called for removing Civil War-era symbols, from state flags to license plates to statues and place names....
Even the Citadel, South Carolina influential military college, whose cadets fired the first shots of the Civil War, (this week) voted in favor of moving its Confederate Naval Jack flag from its prominent place inside its main chapel to a more "appropriate" campus location....
Conservative Republican lawmakers around the South were adding their voices to these sentiments Wednesday. U.S. Senator Roger Wicker became Mississippi's second top-tier Republican to call for changing the flag that state has used since Reconstruction. Wicker said it "should be put in a museum and replaced by one that is more unifying."
Lawmakers in Tennessee said a bust of Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest must go from their Senate. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe was among several state leaders taking aim at vanity license plates with Confederate symbols.
Businesses also moved quickly: Wal-Mart, e-Bay, Amazon, Target and Sears were among those removing Confederate merchandise from stores and online sites, and at least three major flag makers said they will no longer manufacture the Confederate flag....