South Carolina's Confederate Flag Finally Comes Down, But Its Legacy Will Die Hard

Shortly after 10 a.m. Friday, seven members of South Carolina’s Highway Patrol lowered the Confederate flag at the South Carolina Statehouse, folded it, and marched it over to Allen Roberson, director of the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, where the flag will rest. Some of the patrolmen were African Americans, including the patrol officer who marched the folded flag over to Roberson.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill into law Thursday ordering the Confederate flag removed from state capitol grounds. The bill won final approval in the state legislature on June 9, 147 years to the day on which the state legislature voted to ratify the 14 Amendment extending equal protection under the law to formerly enslaved African Americans. And it comes a little over three weeks since 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof tried to ignite a “race war” by shooting nine African Americans dead during a Bible study meeting at Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston.