Editorial boards of the Post and Courier and The State, two major newspapers in South Carolina, are calling on local lawmakers to remove the Confederate flag from the capitol grounds.
The State is a state-wide paper while the Courier serves the Charleston area, which was recently devastated by an apparently racially-motivated church shooting that left nine black people dead, including state Sen. Clementa Pinckney.
The movement to remove the flag gained steam on Monday when Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said that shooting should “call upon us to look at this in a different way.” She said the flag, which many view as a symbol of Southern pride, should be retired to a museum.
“The General Assembly now has the opportunity to resolve an issue that has long divided South Carolinians,” wrote the Courier on Wednesday. “Doing so would be a tribute to the nine people killed at Emanuel AME Church. And the lawmakers’ beloved colleague, who was himself a voice of legislative moderation and wisdom, would surely approve.”
In a Tuesday editorial, the State wrote, “Like the governor, we must be firm in our insistence that it be retired to a museum, and done so in a way that brings us all together.”
Local lawmakers have responded to Haley by saying they would vote soon, perhaps as early as next week, on how to address the flag.
