America
After Haley's call, campaign to remove secessionist flag intensifies
By
By Arun Kumar Washington, June 24
As South Carolina's
Indian-American governor Nikki Haley channelled the outrage over
Charleston church massacre with a call to remove the Confederate flag,
the campaign against the slavery-era secessionist banner intensified.
Heeding
Haley's call, lawmakers Tuesday made debating whether to remove the
flag from the State House grounds an urgent matter as protestors rallied
at the South Carolina capitol in Columbia. The House voted 103-10 to
debate the flag this summer. The 45-member state Senate voted by voice
to join the debate that could begin as early as next Tuesday.
A
two-thirds majority vote in both chambers of the Legislature will be
necessary in order for the measure reach Haley's desk and subsequently
remove the flag from the Capitol grounds.
South Carolina was the
first state to break away from the American Union on December 20, 1860,
six weeks after the election of anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln
as president.
The first shots of the American Civil War too were
fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861 after ten other
states followed in secession to form the Confederate States of America.
The controversial "Stars and Bars" flag was actually the battle flag of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
Public
pressure to remove the red flag with a blue diagonal cross with 13
white stars representing the secessionist states has been growing after
photos of the alleged white shooter Dylan Roof, 21, with a gun waving
the flag emerged.
The governors of Virginia and North Carolina quickly declared that they would remove the flag from state license plates.
One
after another, several of the country's top retailers -- from Walmart
to eBay to Amazon and Sears-- saying they had no intention of offending
customers, announced that they would stop selling Confederate flag
merchandise.
Meanwhile, several companies including Nascar, Boeing, BMW and Michelin also rallied around Haley, a Republican.
The
debate in South Carolina over the Confederate flag also seems to be
spilling over to neighbouring southern states, according to CNN.
in
Kentucky, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and
Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin have both called for the
removal of a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis that stands
in the state capitol building.
In Mississippi, the state's
Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn has called the state flag, which
includes the Confederate flag in the left top corner, "a point of
offense that needs to be removed."
Activists are also calling for
a closer look at the state flags of seven other Southern states, which
also include symbols evoking those states' Civil War battle flags. They
include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and
Tennessee.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])