South Carolina governor: Confederate flag comes down Friday

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Saying South Carolina's history has changed forever, Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill Thursday to relegate the Confederate flag to the state's "relic room," more than 50 years after the rebel banner began flying at the Statehouse to protest the civil-rights movement.

Compelled to act by the slaughter of nine African-Americans at a church Bible study, Haley praised lawmakers for acknowledging the long-celebrated symbol is too painful and divisive to keep promoting.

"The Confederate flag is coming off the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse," Haley said before signing the bill. "We will bring it down with dignity, and we will make sure it is stored in its rightful place."

Police then surrounded the rebel flag with barricades and rope, a siege of sorts that will end today after the banner is furled for the last time at a 10 a.m. ceremony.

South Carolina's leaders first flew the battle flag over the Statehouse dome in 1961 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Civil War. It remained there to represent official opposition to the civil-rights movement.

Mass protests against the flag decades later led to a compromise in 2000 with lawmakers who insisted it symbolized Southern heritage and states' rights. They agreed to move it to a 30-foot pole next to a Confederate monument out front.

But even from that lower perch, the flag was clearly visible in the center of town, and flag supporters remained a powerful bloc in the state.

The massacre 22 days ago of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney and eight others inside Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church changed this dynamic, not only in South Carolina but around the nation.

Police said the killings were racially motivated.

By posing with the Confederate flag before the shootings, suspect Dylann Storm Roof, who has not yet entered a plea to nine counts of murder, showed the flag also has symbolized white supremacy and racial oppression.

Haley moved first, calling on lawmakers to vote the flag down. Quickly thereafter, Republican leaders in other states who long have cultivated the votes of Confederate flag supporters announced Civil War symbols no longer deserve places of honor.

"These nine pens are going to the families of the Emanuel Nine," Haley said after signing the bill into law. "Nine amazing individuals who have forever changed South Carolina history."