S.C. Senate votes to remove Confederate flag; House battle looms

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday formally approved a bill removing the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds, where it has flown either atop the Capitol or on a nearby flagpole for 54 years.

The Senate voted 36-3 to send the bill to the state House, where pushback could develop when debate begins Wednesday.

The momentum to remove the flag comes three weeks after a shooting rampage at a predominantly black church in Charleston left nine people dead and brought renewed attention to the controversial Southern symbol. Gov. Nikki Haley, who called for the flag's removal in the days after the tragedy, has said she will sign the bill.

House members voted 93-18 to skip the committee process and take the bill directly to the floor. Still, some House members remain adamantly opposed to removing the flag. Republican Rep. Mike Pitts said he's introduced dozens of amendments and will "fight until I've got nothing left."

Rep. Todd Rutherford, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said he believed flag foes have the two-thirds majority they need. He urged his colleagues not to derail the effort.

"We ask that they not erect hurdles," Rutherford said. "We ask that they simply allow South Carolina to move forward. This is our moment. This is our time."

The Senate debate on Monday that touched on racism, Southern heritage, family history, slavery and God. The Senate defeated attempts to wait for a non-binding referendum, to replace the South Carolina Infantry Battle Flag with another Confederate flag or to fly the battle flag only on Confederate Memorial Day in May.

Supporters of the idea of removing the flag talked of racial healing, of lowering a symbol of divisiveness, of focusing on the state's future and not its past.

Sen. Larry Martin, a Republican, said his view on the flag changed after the deadly June 17 attack at the historic Emanuel AME Church. Police say accused shooter Dylann Roof reportedly shouted racial epithets, and several photos of the suspect showed him posing with a Confederate flag.

"It isn't part of our future. It's part of our past," Martin said.

Supporters of keeping the flag up talked of honoring the state's more than 20,000 soldiers who died in the Civil War, of respecting their ancestors and of an anti-Confederate zeal run amok because of the shootings of nine black people at Emanuel AME Church by a white gunman.

"I'm more against taking it down in this environment than any other time just because I believe we're placing the blame of what one deranged lunatic did on the people that hold their Southern heritage high," said Sen. Lee Bright, a Spartanburg County Republican and flag supporter.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler of Gaffney, a Republican who also voted against the bill, said his ancestors fought in the Civil War but did not own any slaves.

"We won't change history by moving the flag," he said.

Contributing: Nathaniel Cary, The Greenville News