WASHINGTON
The Confederate battle flag will be pulled down from South Carolina’s statehouse grounds on Friday as Gov. Nikki Haley signed its removal into law.
The move follows the massacre of nine blacks in an historic Charleston church in June that has again brought racial tensions in America to light.
The alleged white perpetrator of the crime, who police say was motivated by hate, is seen in photographs holding the Confederate flag, a contentious symbol for many who view it as a representation of bigotry and anti-black sentiment.
Others, however, maintain that the flag is a source of historical pride.
The state’s House legislature passed a bill early Thursday that requires the flag to be removed 24 hours after Haley signed it into law.
“I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful, such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on Friday,” State Rep. Jenny Horne said during an emotional speech in the state legislature.
Between sobs she urged lawmakers to vote for the flag’s removal, recalling the memory of Rev. Clementa Pinckney who was also a state senator and one of those killed by Dylann Roof in Charleston.
"For the widow of Sen. Pinckney and his two young daughters, that would be adding insult to injury and I will not be a part of it!" she yelled.
Horne says that she is a descendant of Jefferson Davis, who was president of the Confederacy during the civil war, making the flag’s removal all the more personal.
The state senate previously passed the bill, clearing the way for Haley's signature.
The controversial Civil War relic will likely be pulled down at 10.00 a.m. local time (GMT0200) Friday.
The flag flew on the state capitol dome from 1961 when it was erected on the 100th anniversary of the American civil war and later stayed in protest to the civil rights movement, until 2000 when it was moved to the state capitol grounds.
The White House welcomed the development, saying that is "good news" and "progress."
But spokesman Josh Earnest had sharp words for Congressional Republicans who he said "seem to have values and priorities that lie elsewhere".
Rep. Ken Calver on Wednesday night added an amendment to a domestic spending bill that would allow the Confederate flag to be flown in national cemeteries, where some of the South's fallen soldiers and war heroes are interred.
"When you hear me say that congressional Republicans have an agenda that is out of step with the vast majority of Americans, this record at least in part is what I'm referring to," Earnest said.
Also on Thursday House Speaker John Boehner, who on Twitter also lauded the removal of the flag in South Carolina, announced that he is weighing a bipartisan evaluation of the display of the Confederate flag in public, which he said "has become a very thorny issue."
"I have some ideas, and when I firm them up in my head, I'll let you know," Boehner said during his weekly news conference.
