Just one day after Gov. Nikki Haley called for removing the Confederate flag flying over South Carolina’s state capitol, the Republican-controlled legislature has taken the first steps toward making that a reality. The South Carolina House agreed to take up the issue by a vote of 103 to 10.
After the slaying of nine black worshipers at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church, including the African-American state senator who served as the church’s pastor, some may have expected South Carolina to re-fight the Civil War.
Instead, the state has largely done the opposite.
There has been no scene comparable to Ferguson or Baltimore. The full weight of South Carolina’s political and law enforcement system was brought down on the racist white gunman, who was swiftly apprehended and whose actions were rightly described as a hate crime.
The families of the victims expressed forgiveness for alleged murderer Dylann Roof, as the devout Christians they are. Roof’s uncle was quoted as saying he would push the button to execute his nephew if found guilty.
This doesn’t play to the stereotype, but it shouldn’t be surprising. The South Carolina police officer involved in the shooting of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, was arrested and indicted. The New York police officers involved in the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, were not indicted.
The Charleston metro area is less segregated than the New York metro area. In fact, as of 2010, Charleston was the fourth least segregated major metropolitan era (five of the ten most integrated were in the South) and New York was the second most segregated (the Milwaukee metro area was first and Chicago third).
South Carolina elected one of only two African Americans currently serving in the Senate, Republican Tim Scott. In November 2014, Scott received 61 percent of the vote and ran nearly 84,000 votes ahead of fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Scott was first elected to Congress after beating Strom Thurmond’s son in a Republican primary by nearly 37 points. That Thurmond son, Paul, is in favor of the Confederate flag coming down.
None of this is to minimize the history of racism in the Palmetto State or the region more broadly, or to pretend that racism has anywhere near vanished in the present. Many politicians are following the herd on things like the flag rather than acting as a profile in courage, though others are wrestling with the symbols in their state heritage that genuinely mean profoundly different things to many black and white South Carolinians.
But ultimately South Carolina’s future won’t be decided by those who want to live in the past.
