South Carolina's Confederate flag comes down to be put in museum 'relic room'

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Flag due for removal in 10am ceremony at state capitol in Columbia
It is due to be taken to a museum just under a mile away
State legislature voted to remove controversial symbol on Thursday
Governor Nikki Haley signed new law to remove it later that day
Passions around the flag inflamed after Charleston church massacre
Killer Dylann Roof posed with flag and admired the Confederacy
President Barack Obama was among those pushing for its removal

Published: 11:18 EST, 9 July 2015 | Updated: 16:45 EST, 9 July 2015

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A bill banishing the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol was signed into law today by governor Nikki Haley.

Surrounded by supporters of the swift move to kick out the rebel battle banner in the wake of a racist massacre in Charleston, Haley appended her signature to a bill which was passed Thursday morning.

The controversial symbol will be taken down 10am Friday and moved to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, just under a mile away in the city of Columbia.

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Law: South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is pictured passing legislation to remove a Confederate battle banner from the Statehouse grounds

Supporters: Hundreds crowded in to see the bill signed, which was pushed through the legislature in the wake of Dylann Roof's racist massacre last month

Last moments: The Confederate battle banner, seen above on a war memorial outside the state capitol in Columbia, South Carolina, will be taken down Friday morning

War memorial: The controversial symbol, pictured Thursday, flies next to a monument to Confederate Civil War soldiers

South Carolina legislators approved the bill at 2am Thursday morning, and Haley signed it into law around 4pm Thursday afternoon.

Passions over the flag were inflamed last month in the wake of a murder spree at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where 21-year-old Dylann Roof shot dead nine black churchgoers after Bible study.

Several days after the killings, a deranged white supremacist website authored by Roof emerged online, which spoke of his admiration for the rebel Confederacy, and was crammed full of pictures of the killer posing next to flags and in front of Confederate landmarks.

The bill to remove the flag sparked emotional debate inside South Carolina's house of representatives, which eventually passed the bill 94-20.

Jenny Horne, a Republican who claims descent from Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy's only president, rounded on fellow legislators who tried to amend the bill, decrying the flag as a 'symbol of hate'.

She said: '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.

'For the widow of [victim] Sen. Pinckney and his two young daughters, that would be adding insult to injury and I will not be a part of it!

'If we amend this bill, we are telling the people of Charleston that we don't care about you,' she said.

'We are saying that we do not care that someone used this symbol to slay... innocent people who were worshipping their God.

'I'm sorry, I have heard enough about heritage. I have a heritage. I am a lifelong South Carolinian.

'I am a descendant of Jefferson Davis, but that does not matter.

'It's not about Jenny Horne. It's about the people of South Carolina who have demanded that this symbol of hate come off of the statehouse grounds.'

'New day': South Carolina's governor, Nikki Haley, supported the bill and is due to sign it into law Thursday afternoon

SC Republican Rep delivers emotional speech in flag debate

Protests: John McCaskill (left) and an unnamed protester (right) appeared at the statehouse Thursday afternoon in a show of protest against the new law

The state's senate later approved the bill by a two-thirds majority.

Similar moves have taken place in other Southern states to remove the flag.

In Montgomery, Alabama, governor Robert Bentley ordered four flags removed from a Confederate war memorial at the statehouse in late June.

Supporters of the symbol had argued that it represents Southern heritage and pride, rather than racism and hatred.

Confederate flag debates carried out in South Carolina House

Prompt: Charleston church murderer Dylann Roof often posed with the controversial flag, and spoke of his admiration for the Confederacy. His murder of nine black churchgoers sparked current moves to scrap the flag

Enthusiast: After Roof's arrest a cache of photographs showing him posing at Confederate landmarks, such as the Museum and Library of Confederate history in Greenville, South Carolina, above

The flag has flown in the grounds on the statehouse for 54 years, since it was installed in an act of protest at the civil rights movement, which forced the desegregation of Southern states.

It used to fly over the dome of the capitol building, but was moved to the war memorial in 2000.

But the position of those who defend the flag became untenable in the face of public opposition, led by President Barack Obama, who called it: 'a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation'.

Speaking at the eulogy of a pastor who was among Roof's victims, he said: 'Removing the flag from this state’s capital would not be an act of political correctness.

New home: The flag is due to be moved to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia

Inside: The flag will become a museum exhibit after legislators voted to remove it - pictured is the outside of the relic room

'It would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be acknowledgement that the cause for which they fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong.'

After the state legislature passed the bill, governor Haley released a statement hailing the new law as a chance to 'heal'.

She said: 'It is a new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of, a day that truly brings us all together as we continue to heal, as one people and one state. '