COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The latest on the Confederate flag debate in the South Carolina (all times local):
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12:20 p.m.
People who believe the Confederate flag honors their ancestors say they’re trying to come to grips with the reality that the banner will soon be gone from the South Carolina Statehouse.
This week, Confederate flag supporter Nelson Waller stood outside the Statehouse in his rebel flag tie and rallied to save the banner. But the legislature has passed a bill to remove it, and Republican Gov. Nikki Haley says she’ll sign it into law Thursday afternoon.
Waller says he isn’t coming back for Friday’s ceremony when the flag is pulled down.
He says he feels betrayed by his state leaders. He says the flag had nothing to do with Dylann Roof, the white man charged with fatally shooting nine black churchgoers in Charleston. The massacre last month reignited the debate over the flag.
Waller calls the flag a symbol of the valor of brave Southern soldiers defending their homes.
Waller says: “They won’t be happy until every state is identical to every other state. There will be no more regional culture.”
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12:10 p.m.
A South Carolina House member who opposed the measure to remove a Confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds says he fears the move could be part of a regional or nationwide campaign targeting Confederate and Civil War-era history.
Republican Rep. Jonathon Hill said hours after the House vote Thursday that he’s happy no move has been made to remove any monuments from the Statehouse grounds along with the flag. He advised other states considering the removal of Confederate symbols to “proceed carefully.”
He says: “Hopefully it ends here, and we move forward, and we can put all of this behind us.”
Hill was among 27 House members who opposed removing the flag on a key vote. He says he won’t attend the governor’s signing of the bill Thursday afternoon or the Friday morning ceremony to remove the flag because of obligations in his home district.
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11:10 a.m.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Nikki Haley says the Confederate flag will be removed from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds on Friday morning.
Spokeswoman Chaney Adams says the flag will come down in a ceremony scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday. He did not give any other details.
Haley has said she will sign the bill to remove the flag at 4 p.m. Thursday. The House passed the bill early Thursday. The measure says the flag must be removed within 24 hours of her signature.
The Confederate flag has flown on the Statehouse grounds for 54 years since being put up as a protest of the Civil Rights movement.
Haley and other conservatives didn’t begin a push to remove the flag until nine black churchgoers were killed in a church shooting in Charleston by a gunman who police say was motivated by racial hatred.
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11:05 a.m.
The House is about to put its members on record on whether Confederate flags can decorate rebel graves in historic federal cemeteries and if their sale should be banned in national park gift shops.
The vote comes after Southern lawmakers complained that they were sandbagged two nights ago when the House voted — without a recorded tally — to ban the display of Confederate flags at historic federal cemeteries and strengthen Park Service policy against its sale in gift shops.
It’s unclear how the vote will turn out, but momentum against the flag’s display on public land has skyrocketed after last month’s tragic slaughter at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Early Thursday, the state legislature finalized a bill to remove the flag from Statehouse grounds. Gov. Nikki Haley says she’ll sign it Thursday afternoon. It must be removed 24 hours after her signature.
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10:25 a.m.
Gov. Nikki Haley says she will sign the bill removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Haley’s office didn’t immediately say when the flag would be removed, but the bill requires it to happen within 24 hours of her signature.
Moments after Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster ratified the bill, Haley made the announcement that she would sign it in the Statehouse lobby that afternoon. The bill passed the state House at 1 a.m. Thursday.
The Confederate flag has flown on the Statehouse grounds for 54 years since being put up as a protest of the Civil Rights movement.
Haley and other conservatives didn’t begin a push to remove the flag until nine black churchgoers were killed in a church shooting in Charleston by a gunman who police say was motivated by racial hatred.
