South Carolina’s State House building in Columbia is the seat of the state’s government, and also a site of controversy regarding the racist past of the Confederate flag. While the flag has since been removed from atop the State House dome, it still flies on the building’s grounds despite criticism from those who feel it should be removed.
The Confederate flag represents the racism of South Carolina and the Deep South during the Civil War, which divided the U.S into two nations – the Confederate States of America that wanted slavery to remain the law of the land and the Union of the Northern states who opposed it. Even after the Confederacy conceded to the Union, many still held on to the flag as a symbol of defiance.
The flag was placed on the State House dome in 1961 and was a sore sight for the city’s Black residents who endured the segregation and rampant racism in the city. Through a series of protests and political pressure, the South Carolina State Senate passed a bill to remove the flag by a landslide vote. The flag wasn’t completely taken away, as it was placed in front of the Capitol building as part of a monument to fallen Confederate soldiers.
Two students, one Black and the other white, from the military academy The Citadel removed the flag. Over the years, the NAACP and other civil rights groups have banded together in asking for the flag’s removal. The insistence on the state and city to keep the flag flying on State House grounds has marred much of Columbia’s image as a hospitable city.
Last fall, a poll taken by an independent study group found that 61 percent of residents said the flag should stay on the State House grounds. Looking at the numbers by race, it was divided down the middle between white and Blacks at 53 and 51 percent respectively. Though there hasn’t been any large mobilization efforts to remove the flag of late, it remains a sore spot for activists and organizers in the region.
Last October, Republican Governor Nikki Haley said during the 2014 gubernatorial debate that South Carolina has overcome its racist past considering her election as an Indian-American woman. She also mentioned her 2013 appointment of Tim Scott as a United States senator. Scott went on to become the first Black senator in South Carolina’s history and the first to be elected since the 19th Century.
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