Confederate Flag Controversy (2015)

The Confederate battle flag, a relic of the Confederate States of America, has in the twenty-first century incited disputes between those who view the flag as a symbol of Southern pride and heritage and those who perceive it as a representation of racial hatred and division. Following the murder of nine African Americans at a Charleston, South Carolina, church on June 17, 2015, police and media reports indicated that the alleged shooter, Dylann Roof, used the Confederate flag as a symbol of his white-supremacist beliefs. The incident ignited national protests and debates about the continued display of the Confederate flag, especially on government buildings and property.

Date: Crowds gathered at the South Carolina Statehouse on June 20, 2015, to protest the display of the Confederate flag on state property.

Place: Confederate Soldier Monument in front of the South Carolina Statehouse, Columbia, South Carolina

Key Events

• 2000--South Carolina passes a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the dome of its statehouse as well as the legislative chambers; the bill allows the flag to remain at the Confederate Soldier Monument.
• June 17, 2015--Nine African American individuals are killed in a mass shooting conducted by a white gunman at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
• June 18, 2015--Police identify a primary suspect, Dylann Roof, who claims to have committed the murders in hopes of inspiring a "race war." Flags at the South Carolina Statehouse are flown at half mast, but the Confederate flag at the Confederate Soldier Monument is not lowered, due to a 2000 law stating that the state legislature must vote to remove the flag.
• June 20, 2015--Several thousand demonstrators gather at the statehouse to protest government displays of the Confederate flag.
• June 22, 2015--South Carolina governor Nikki Haley announces her intention to push for the removal of the flag from statehouse grounds.
• June 2015--Walmart, Amazon, eBay, and Sears announce they will no longer sell products featuring the Confederate flag.
• July 9, 2015--South Carolina legislature votes to remove the Confederate flag from all government property.

Status

As of August 2015, other Southern states had been moved by the debate in South Carolina to reconsider their display of the Confederate flag. Alabama's governor ordered the removal of the Confederate flag from a monument at the state's capitol building in June and representatives in Mississippi had begun pushing for the removal of the symbol from the state flag.

However, throughout the South, a number of businesses and homeowners decided to display the Confederate flag in the wake of the controversy. The news media reported on a controversy that occurred when Virginia's Hurley High School, where the Confederate flag is used by the school's sports teams and in other school emblems, refused to discontinue using the flag on school property. In interviews, Hurley High School administrators and some of the students argued that the Confederate flag was a symbol of Southern heritage and not a racist symbol.

In-Depth Overview

In 2000, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People led a boycott in South Carolina opposing the display of the Confederate flag on state government property. The 2000 boycott was part of an ongoing effort against the public display of the Confederate flag on the basis that the flag is associated with the enslavement of African Americans. The state legislature reached a compromise in which Confederate flags were removed from the dome of the statehouse and legislative chambers, but the state maintained the right to display a Confederate flag at the Confederate Soldier Monument located in front of the statehouse. The bill further specified that the flag could not be removed without a majority vote in the legislature.

On June 17, 2015, nine African Americans were killed in a shooting conducted by a white gunman at the Emanuel Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, including pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney. The following day, the shootings were tied to twenty-one-year-old Dylann Roof, whose social media posts and profiles showed him holding the Confederate flag and prominently displaying the flag on a specialty license plate. When South Carolina governor Nikki Haley ordered all statehouse flags to be lowered to half-mast for nine days, the flag at the Confederate Soldier Monument was not removed or lowered due to the state law.

When the media reported on the flag still flying at the monument, the issue sparked a national debate, and on June 20 there was a rally opposing the display of the flag at the statehouse. Two days later, Haley declared that she was in favor of removing the flag from government property, and an announcement soon followed that President Barack Obama also supported the decision to remove the flag and retire it to museums.

Over the next week, the governors of Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Tennessee announced plans to remove the Confederate flag from specialty license plates available in those states. As political support for the removal of the flag was building, several major retailers, including Walmart, Amazon, and eBay, announced that they were going to discontinue the sale of Confederate flag-themed merchandise.

A public opinion poll conducted by CNN on July 2, 2015, found that 55 percent of Americans supported the removal of the Confederate flag from government buildings, though 57 percent believed that the flag was a symbol of Southern heritage and not an inherently racist symbol (Agiesta, 2015). After a series of debates, the South Carolina legislature voted to remove the Confederate flag from all state property and the flag was officially taken down on July 10, with plans to display it in a state museum.

Key Figures

Nikki Haley: Governor of South Carolina who led the legislative effort to remove the Confederate flag from state property.

Clementa C. Pinckney: South Carolina pastor and state senator killed in the church shooting.

Dylann Roof: South Carolina resident accused of the murders of nine African American individuals at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015.

Bibliography

Agiesta, J. (2015, July 2). Poll: Majority sees Confederate flag as Southern pride. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/02/politics/confederate-flag-poll-racism-southern-pride/

History of the Confederate flag on statehouse grounds. (2015, June 22). New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/06/22/us/ap-us-charleston-shooting-confederate-flag-timeline.html

Izadi, E., & Phillip, A. (2015, July 9). South Carolina House votes to remove Confederate flag from statehouse grounds. Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/07/09/south-carolina-house-votes-to-remove-confederate-flag-from-statehouse-grounds/

McLeod, H. (2015, June 23). Battle over Confederate flag unravels across the South. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/23/battle-over-confederate-f%5Fn%5F7649710.html

Phillip, A. (2015, June 20). Church killings ignite furor anew over SC capitol's Confederate flag. Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/church-killings-ignite-furor-anew-over-sc-capitols-confederate-flag/2015/06/20/a0fb7bba-1789-11e5-89f3-61410da94eb1%5Fstory.html