South Carolina Legislature Moves to Take Down Confederate Flag

South Carolina House Representative Terry Alexander (District-59, Florence, SC), sits in the rotunda of the capitol as he discusses issues surrounding the Confederate Battle Flag.  Photo: Urban News
South Carolina House Representative Terry Alexander (District-59, Florence, SC), sits in the rotunda of the capitol as he discusses issues surrounding the Confederate Battle Flag. Photo: Urban News

The debate was on-going and heated in the South Carolina House of Representatives.

In a surprise vote shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday, July 9, South Carolina’s state House followed the Senate in voting to remove the Confederate battle flag from its prominent place on the Statehouse grounds. The final tally in the state House was 94-20; in the Senate, 36-3.

Governor Nikki Haley has promised to sign the bill, under which the flag will be shipped off to the state’s Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, not far from where the last Confederate flag that flew over the Statehouse dome is stored.

In both the Senate and the House, a vote on removing the flag required a two-thirds majority and three “readings,” or votes. The final Senate vote on July 7 was widely seen as a formality; the Senate had voted 37-3 to advance the bill after its second reading, defeating several attempts to offer alternate plans—such as flying a different Confederate flag, or flying the battle flag only on Confederate Memorial Day.

The Senate vote reflected close personal ties. State Senator Clementa Pinkney was one of nine worshippers murdered June 17 at Emanuel AME Church, where he was also the pastor, by confessed white supremacist Dylann Roof. The massacre, and Root’s apparent devotion to the Confederate battle flag as an emblem of his racial hatred, led to the reinvigorated movement to remove the flag from the state capitol grounds. Pinckney’s widow, Jennifer, was present for Tuesday’s Senate vote, after which she visited the Senate floor; many members of the chamber formed a line to speak to her and share hugs and handshakes.

In the Senate, the charge to keep the Confederate flag flying was led by state Senator Lee Bright (R-District 12), who represents Greenville & Spartanburg counties. Bright took a decidedly pro-Confederate approach, warning against “scrubbing historical symbols that memorialize states’ rights.”

He added, “In South Carolina, we know what this flag symbolizes: resistance against a federal, centralized power that far overreached its constitutional limits. It proudly symbolizes states’ rights and constitutional liberties, which many have fought and died for. Symbols can be used for many things by many people, but this does not in any way remove the true meaning behind a piece of our state’s history.”

Bright went on to say, “Today, the Confederate flag flies appropriately above a historical monument. If we choose to remove this flag, are we to also to remove the names of Confederate officers from our roadways? Should we crumble all the Confederate monuments that dot the South Carolina landscape? Where does it end?”

It ended in the Senate with a twelve-to-one majority vote.

In the House, with 124 members, the two-thirds majority required 84 votes, each held within 24 hours of the previous one. Though concern had grown throughout the day on Wednesday that opponents would delay or kill the bill with amendments, the House held its first vote late Wednesday; then at about 12:45 a.m. Thursday—a different day—they held a second vote, and adjourned. Fifteen minutes later, they were convened again, and held the third reading almost immediately.

If the bill had not passed by 2/3 on the final reading, it would have died for the session. If even one amendment had passed, the revised bill would have had to go back to the state Senate, which has now adjourned for the session. And only the governor could call them back.

On Wednesday The Urban News met with Representative Terry Alexander (D-Florence) in his chamber to learn about the debate and vote. He explained that the process was being deliberately slowed by the introduction of a score of amendments to weaken or replace the bill on the floor.

Wednesday morning (July 8), Rep. Alexander said, “We were supposed to start at 10 o’clock, but they were trying to rally their forces behind them, and waiting to get started. And now it’s really looking compromised. The longer they stretch it out, the longer the flag flies.”

And they did stretch it out. One Republican representative was heard on the House floor stating, “The House doesn’t allow filibustering, but they do allow amendments.” Not long after, House member Mike Pitts (R-Greenwood/Laurens County) asked to put the vote to a binding public referendum. After a lawyer informed members that a public referendum cannot be binding on the House, he asked to put the issue to a non-binding referendum so that South Carolina voters could weigh in.

Flag supporters also put up a score of amendments, knowing that even failed amendments have their effect, through sapping the will of removal supporters and giving renewed hope to pro-Confederate activists, both in the House and elsewhere. And by afternoon, the support in the House had weakened, as shown in the final tally of 20 against the bill, compared to only nine members in opposition a few days before.

The Republican House leadership also tried to pick off individual Democrats and members of the Black Caucus to support one or another compromise. But according to Rep. Alexander, members of both groups held solid.

“What we don’t want to do is muddy the waters. [We] are not willing to compromise on taking the flag down,” Alexander told us Wednesday. And after the bill passed, he said, “They were trying to cut a deal. They knew and we knew that if a clean bill came to the floor it would pass. And they kept saying, ‘Give us something.’ And we kept saying – no. We held to our guns.”

Given the intense public pressure and high visibility of the issue in recent weeks, the slowdown and parliamentary delays came as a surprise to proponents of removing the flag. Members were getting phone calls from back home telling them ‘Don’t take it down,’ with the message—and their determination—reinforced by both individual voters and organized pressure groups, including so-called “heritage” groups and white supremacists. And, even though many Republican members were in favor of removal of the flag, the pressure worked against them.

Alexander said, “They’re worried about their reelections. They’ve been getting pressure from people who don’t want the flag to come down. They don’t want to buckle under to pressure.” And while many of the members felt pressure from the pro-Confederate side, others were telling him, basically, ‘We want to do the right thing, but don’t make us do the right thing.”

Rep. Jenny Horne, a Republican descendant of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, electrified the debate before the final vote with an impassioned, tearful plea to put the controversy behind them. Wearing a pink suit, she emphasized her southern bona fides before saying, “This is an issue that doesn’t get better with age,” and called for honoring the people of Charleston by removing the flag for good.

As Rep. Alexander observed, “It’s not just a black issue, it’s a white issue – it’s a WE issue. The majority of all voters in the state support removing the flag. And, those Republican members who also support removing the flag need to stand up and say so; and they need to say why. And vote to do it.”

And THAT they did!

 


S.C. Representative Terry Alexander (SC-District 59, serving Florence, S.C.) earned his A.D. from Durham Business College in 1976. He went on to receive his B.A. from Francis Marion University in 1991 and his M.Div. from Howard University School of Divinity in 1998.

Alexander worked as a Managing Partner of Sunrise of the Pee Dee, a career development consultant, and as Adjunct Professor of Religion at Limestone College. He is currently a pastor at Wayside Chapel Baptist Church and an education consultant. Alexander has served on the Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments.