The design of a proposed Sons of the Confederacy Texas state license plate. Georgia's state flag is the original Stars and Bars Confederate flag with Georgia's state seal in the middle of the circle of stars. Some state flags incorporate aspects of the various Confederate flags into their own.
The House measure was approved by a vote of 103 to 10. The debate isn't expected to happen for several weeks. Any change would need a two-thirds majority in both houses.īoth houses approved a measure to hold the debate. The governor urged the state's House and Senate to debate the issue no later than this summer, saying she'll otherwise call a special session to force them to resolve it. South Carolina Governor Haley has called for the flag to be removed following the June 17, 2015, mass shooting that killed nine black church members. Haley said the flag should be placed in a museum. It was moved to a position in front of the government building, next to a monument to Confederate soldiers, where it remains today. Lawmakers decided to keep it there the following year in response to the civil rights movement.įifteen years ago, mass protests led the state to remove the flag. The Confederate battle flag was originally placed atop South Carolina's Statehouse in 1961 to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has fought South Carolina's public display of the Confederate battle flag for more than two decades. The Confederate battle flag remains a symbol of hundreds of extremist groups in the U.S., including the KKK. However, she also recognized that it is a "deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past." Millions of Africans were brought in cargo ships to America where they were sold as slaves before the practice was abolished in 1865. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has acknowledged that for many South Carolinians the flag still represents noble traditions of heritage and duty. The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that works to preserve the history of the Confederacy, sells multiple items online with the flag printed on them. It says the people who fought for the Confederacy were heroes who wanted to preserve liberty and freedom guaranteed to them by the Constitution, according to the group's website, and that the Confederate flag is a symbol of that belief. The Confederate battle flag is considered by some to be a symbol of slavery, others of southern pride. The Confederate flag that remains in common use in some southern states today was never an official flag of the confederacy. The two extra stars represented Kentucky and Missouri, which were not official members of the confederacy.Ībout two years later, the confederacy added a red bar at the right-hand side of the flag, its third official iteration. Four new states had officially joined: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. In May 1863, the confederacy adopted its second official flag, which had 13 stars in the Southern Cross formation to represent additional states. The seven-star Stars and Bars flag was the first official flag of the confederacy. Extra stars were added to the flag as more states joined the confederacy. The confederacy created a national flag called Stars and Bars made up of seven stars to represent the seven states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. It was used from March 1861 to May 1863, according to. The Confederate States of America, a group of seven states that supported slave ownership in the mid-1800s and wanted to secede from the U.S., did not use the current Confederate flag as its national flag. The Confederate flag is used by hundreds of extremist groups, including the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan, for example. It has reinvigorated an old debate over whether the flag represents southern pride and a state's right to freedom, or whether it is a racist symbol. The historical significance of Charleston's 'Mother Emanuel' church.Confederate flag belongs only in museum.Shortly after the shooting, images surfaced of the alleged shooter, Roof, posing with a Confederate flag. There's renewed debate over the meaning of the controversial Confederate flag following a racially motivated mass shooting in Charleston, S.C.ĭylann Storm Roof, 21, has been charged with murder after allegedly killing nine black church members at the historic "Mother" Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last week.