It was always an insult to African-Americans to keep a Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina Capitol. They are citizens of the state; the Confederate flag is not their flag.
Now, after the massacre of nine African-Americans at a historic church in Charleston, a Republican legislator has said he will introduce a bill to remove the Confederate flag.
South Carolina State Representative Doug Brannon made news tonight by going where most other Republicans refuse to go. He said in unqualified terms that race was the reason for the shooting that took the lives of nine Black South Carolinians gathered for bible study in an historic Black Charleston church. Then he announced he would sponsor a bill in the next legislative session to remove the Confederate flag from the state house grounds.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes talked by phone with the obviously emotional Rep. Brannon, first confirming his plan to introduce a bill to remove the flag, and then asking him why he had decided to sponsor the legislation, which is sure to be controversial in the state.
“I had a friend die Wednesday night for no reason other than he was a Black man,” said Brannon, with unmistakeable emotion in his voice.
Rep. Brannon referred to Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a former state senator, as “an incredible human being.”
It should not take a tragedy to persuade people to do what is right and decent.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s about time. How sad that it takes something horrific like this mass murder to get someone to look at what that flag represents. I’m not from the area, so I don’t know this: what are the chances of this bill passing?
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If he comes wrapped in a flag of hate, how can I burn that flag and not sear his flesh? How can I rip that flag to shreds and not lacerate his skin? How can I tear away that flag and not leave him naked?
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This is great news. Sadly some of the people in the South never got over the Civil War. If they want to “celebrate” the brave men that fought in the war, they should put their monument in a place away from the state capitol building. It sends the wrong message. When that symbol, that flag is near the capitol, it sends a hurtful message to African Americans and others as well. I live in Florida now. When I see someone with the rebel flag on their car, it makes me cringe.
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Concerning the tragedy itself.
How FANTASTIC that the people who suffered the most are now forgiving the perpetrator. How VERY different this nation, indeed the world, would be if the great religions basic tenets were observed. Do unto others etc.
If I hate, am unforgiving, “I” am the one who suffers, I the one who carried the burden, I the one lets the person wronging me have power over me.
To forgive as we all should know is NOT to condone. Forgiving frees us, hate etc burdens us down. Forgiving we can, should still work to undo the wrongs causing that envelope us.
These forgiving people can, should fight injustice, intolerance ad nauseum.
Basically we probably all know the above but when push comes to shove, it is difficult, sometimes difficult beyond belief to unburden ourselves as these people have done.
How VERY FANTASTIC. They LIVE their Christian beliefs, again beliefs shared basically by all major religions.
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Let’s be clear here. The battle flag is an insult to all South Carolineans, except for the rare wackos.
I’m white and grew up and live in Charleston. This flag does not represent who we are now. So many of us have moved beyond justifying slavery and Jim Crow. Yes, there is still racism, and given the evil that visited our city, this flag is become even more like a swastika. I has to go from state-sponsorship.
Hers a video of the Rev. Sen. Clementa Pinckney, no longer with us.
We lost an awful lot. It hurts. But We Are Charleston.
http://marlonkimpson.com/senator-reverend-clementa-pinckney/
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Hmmmm, only took 150 years?
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Also time to rename a lot of streets in Charleston, perhaps remove a Confederate general and replace that with the name of the Reverand and Senator who, by all accounts, is a real hero.
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This kind of bigotry is not reserved for the South.
Some years ago, I was hired by the BoE of a Coastal California city, to do a bottom to top mediation and sensitivity training after a group of white male high school students, flying the Confederate flag on their pick up trucks, and wearing a small version on their shirts, intimidated two Black students. They beat the boy up, and they kept putting crude drawings of the girl hanging from a tree, on her desk. Her mother took her out of this school, and they were terrified.
The principal had “never seen a problem with these Confederate flags” up to that time and never banned them from her campus. After many meetings, the BoE decided to forego training students, teachers, administration, staff, and parents, as was needed, instead opting to hire a very expensive LA law firm to protect them from lawsuits pressed not only by the parents of the two Black children, but also by the parents of the bigoted perps who claimed to have been defamed, slandered, and libeled. Such is American justice and jurisprudence…and the ineffectiveness of some school districts in non-Southern states.
As was mentioned above, the Civil War is still being fought in the South. I did educational research projects in 18 of these states, and consistently, shockingly, learned how bigoted they remain…and even the training in the religious colleges reflects this world view. Very scary stuff.
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As W.E.B. Dubois said, the problem of America is the problem of the color line. Guns exacerbate the problem. Drugs, prescription drugs, exacerbate the problem. But hatred is the issue that triggers the long long list of lynchings by ropes and knives and tasers and guns. South Carolina’s confederate flag (not lowered this week, interestingly enough) is a shield for the haters, and a flag for the terrorists.
And if we are talking about young people, let’s ask their parents some questions. As the song goes,
“You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!”
When the schools reinforce the hatred passed on by parents, and give students nothing to be proud of but their racist superiority, we have a problem.
As the saying goes, A large fish, when it is dying, begins to rot from the head. The government, the government officials, the educators, and of course the parents, are at the top of the chain. The victims dead of religious or racist terrorists are the result.
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