South Carolina governor signs bill removing Confederate flag; removal is this morning
In photo above: State Rep. John King, right, D-York, hugs a woman after the House approved a bill removing the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds early Thursday, July 9, 2015, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
By The Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds at 4 p.m. Thursday, July 9.
The flag is being removed Friday morning, July 10, during a ceremony.
Moments after Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster ratified the bill, Haley made the announcement that she would sign it in the Statehouse lobby that afternoon. The bill passed the state House at 1 a.m. Thursday.
The Confederate flag has flown on the Statehouse grounds for 54 years since being put up as a protest of the Civil Rights Movement.
Haley and other conservatives didn’t begin a push to remove the flag until nine black churchgoers were killed in a church shooting in Charleston, S.C., by a gunman who police say was motivated by racial hatred.
