The lawmakers may debate removing the flag but:
The flag flying in South Carolina is the Virginia Battle Flag so get your britches out of the bunch and quit calling it the Confederate Flag.
Check out The Museum of the Confederacy. The Confederate States of America adopted three different national flag patterns between 1861 and 1865. The Provisional Confederate Congress adopted the First National pattern, also referred to as the “Stars and Bars,” on March 4, 1861. This pattern flag flew over the Capitol at Montgomery, Alabama, where the Provisional Congress met prior to the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861. Read article on the Confederate Flag. The Confederate Flag -- no longer a symbol of southern pride?
Charleston's The Post and Courier Reports:
COLUMBIA — The S.C. Legislature agreed Tuesday to consider taking down the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds, where it has flown as part of a Civil War memorial for the past 15 years.
The House voted 103-10 while the Senate approved by voice vote broadening the subjects that can be taken up during the current special session.
Across the hall, House members also filed two bills that called for the removal of the flag, but debate will be delayed while they go through committees.
A two-thirds majority was needed to allow discussion, and the same margin will be needed in both the House and Senate to change the flag’s location.
The vote came after hundreds of people rallied outside the Capitol chanting “Bring it down, bring it down” to demand that lawmakers remove the flag from the Civil War soldiers memorial on Statehouse grounds.
The Confederate flag has been assailed as a symbol of racism in the wake of the killing of pastor and state Sen. Clementa Pinckney and eight other parishioners on June 17 during Bible study at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church. President Barack Obama will deliver the eulogy for Pinckney at his funeral on Friday.
Dylann Roof, 21, an avowed white supremacist pictured holding a Confederate flag on a website where he allegedly posted a racist manifesto, has been charged with nine counts of murder in the church shooting.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Larry Martin said he believes it’s both impractical and disrespectful to publicly debate the topic this week.“I prefer us to not do that out of respect for the services that will be held,” said Martin, R-Pickens.
