After a contentious battle South Carolina lawmakers have successfully voted to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse.
Just after 1:00 AM EDT early Thursday morning the South Carolina House voted 94-20 to remove the confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds. It was the third vote after an evening of passionate debate that almost was ruined by neo-confederate lawmakers attempting to derail the process.
On Monday, the South Carolina Senate also voted, 37-3, to remove the flag.
The bill now heads to Governor Nikki Haley’s desk, which she is expected to sign as she called for lawmakers to act.
South Carolina, the first state to secede before the Civil War, has flown the confederate flag for over five decades in retaliation of the African-American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Tonight’s vote is a step in acknowledging, if not removing, institutional racism that plagues the state and the South.
It took the murders of nine Black church parishioners by a white supremacist to finally open the eyes of many to the racist associations the Confederate flag holds. Many conservatives are still angry about the attacks on the Confederate flag, which history revisionists have falsely managed to convince themselves and others represents “heritage, not hate.”
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Image, top, by Mykal McEldowney via Twitter