High emotions and heavy security accompanied the event, as the flag which was flown above the state house before it was moved in 2000 to the grounds to fly next to a Confederate Soldier Monument, was taken down. As it came down, the crowd chanted U-S-A, U-S-A.
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The debate to take the flag down was contentious, with state lawmakers claiming it represented heritage while a black Democratic lawmaker challenged the whitewashing of Civil War history, saying his family was “brought here in chains.”
The flag has been a divisive symbol for years, as it was originally raised April 11, 1961 for the opening of the Civil War centennial and in protest to desegregation efforts. It was intended as and is seen by many as a symbol of white supremacy and resistance to the federal government by a resentful South that lost the Civil War.
A local artist who displayed one of his paintings as the flag came down explained, “Well, this is home, and I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t do something. It’s a soldier who never got his props, probably never was freedom. As a Union soldier, the flag is behind him, and it’s behind us now…And you can’t build love when you are hurting someone. If you want to create a world of love, tranquility and working together, you can’t have a symbol of bigotry and hatred. You know, if that was a swastika it would have been gone a long time ago.”
It was a symbolic, but an emotionally powerful victory. The removal of the Confederate flag was a long overdue gesture of healing and empathy through which it is possible for the door of progress to open.
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