Governor Nikki Haley signs bill to remove the Confederate battle flag

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed a historic bill that will remove the Confederate battle flag from the state Capitol grounds, where it has been a source of friction for more than half a century, LA Times reported.

Haley’s signature ends the fighting over the flag, seen as an emblem of Southern heritage by some but condemned as a symbol of racial oppression by others.

The flag flew over the dome of South Carolina's Capitol in 1961 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the war — and stayed as a protest to the civil rights movement that shattered Jim Crow segregationist laws across the South. After protests from civil rights leaders, the battle flag was moved in 2000 from the dome to its current location on the Capitol’s front lawn.

Haley had called for removal of the flag in the wake of the June 17 massacre of nine black parishioners at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston. A white man, Dylann Roof, who had apparently espoused racist ideologies and who had been photographed with Confederate symbols, is being held on nine murder counts and other charges.

Relatives of those slain at the church were among those in the racially diverse crowd who watched the governor use several pens to sign the legislation, whose passage was all but impossible before the church shootings. The governor praised the dead for changing the debate about the flag and race relations.

Hindus commend South Carolina Legislature for Confederate flag removal

Hindus have commended South Carolina Legislature, Governor Nikki R. Haley and people for historical bipartisan biracial decisive action to remove the Confederate flag from Capitol grounds in Columbia.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, thanked South Carolina legislators and Governor Haley for showing strong political stand and will on this complicated issue and displaying remarkable understanding, reconciliation, togetherness, love and commitment for a better future of the state.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that it was a right action in the positive direction putting aside racial and political barriers in the spirit of unity and healing. Something remarkable and meaningful had been accomplished in nation’s conscience, Zed added.