# South Carolina Statehouse Flag **The Confederate battle flag at the South Carolina State House** flew over the capitol dome from the early 1960s until 2000 and then beside a Confederate monument on the front lawn until July 10, 2015. It is the KB's main case of a [[Massive Resistance]]-era symbol defended for half a century as "heritage" that came down only after a racist mass murder, the [[Charleston Church Shooting]], whose killer had posed with the flag. ## Timeline | Date | Event | |---|---| | 1938 / 1956 | Flag first displayed in the House chamber, then the Senate chamber | | 1961–1962 | Raised over the dome for the [[American Civil War]] centennial; a 1962 concurrent resolution kept it there with no end date (sources split on 1961 or 1962 for the first raising) | | 1996 | Gov. David Beasley proposes moving it to a monument; the effort stalls | | July 15, 1999 | National NAACP votes an economic boycott of the state | | January 1, 2000 | Boycott takes effect; more than 45,000 march on the State House on January 17 | | April 12 / May 10, 2000 | Senate, then House, pass the compromise; Gov. Jim Hodges signs it May 23 | | July 1, 2000 | Dome flag lowered; a smaller square battle flag goes up on a 30-foot pole at the Confederate Soldier Monument | | June 17, 2015 | Nine worshippers murdered at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston | | June 22, 2015 | Gov. [[Nikki Haley]] reverses her position: "the time has come" to move the flag | | June 27, 2015 | Activist Bree Newsome climbs the pole and takes the flag down; she and James Ian Tyson are arrested and the flag is rehung within about 45 minutes | | July 6–7, 2015 | Senate passes removal bill (37–3, then 36–3 on final reading) | | July 9, 2015 | House passes it 94–20 after more than 12 hours of debate and 68 amendments; Haley signs it the same day | | July 10, 2015 | Flag removed at 10 a.m. and taken to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum | ## The 2000 compromise The 2000 law, known as the Heritage Act, answered the NAACP boycott by moving the flag rather than removing it. The dome flag came down, but the replacement flew at street level in front of the capitol, and the law required a two-thirds vote of the legislature to change it. For fifteen years the compromise let both sides claim the issue was settled. ## 2015 Haley, a Republican, called for removal five days after the shooting. Under the 2000 deal any change required a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers, and both chambers cleared it. In the House debate, Republican Rep. Jenny Horne said: "I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful, such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds." Newsome's climb, two weeks before the legal removal, made the image that stood for the moment. The effect spread: retailers stopped selling the flag, and Mississippi replaced its state flag in 2020 ([[Mississippi State Flag]]). ## Why it matters to the KB It matches the vault's account of the [[Confederate Battle Flag]]: it went up during the fight over desegregation, not in 1865, and "heritage" was the argument for keeping it. Its removal follows the pattern of other [[Confederate Monuments]] fights: decades of failed organized pressure, then fast action after a violent event. ## See Also - [[Confederate Battle Flag]] · [[Contested Symbols Hub]] · [[Confederate Monuments]] · [[The Lost Cause]] - [[Charleston Church Shooting]] · [[Nikki Haley]] · [[NAACP]] · [[Massive Resistance]] - [[Mississippi State Flag]] · [[Georgia State Flag]] · [[Sons of Confederate Veterans]]