The Movement to Take Down the Confederate Flag Is Gaining Heat

As the United States grieves the loss of the nine people shot and killed at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday, a demand has seeded itself in that collective sadness. Amid the broader discussion of suspect Dylann Roof’s massacre at the historic black church, a growing campaign is calling on South Carolina to take down the Confederate flag that flies outside its statehouse.

So, Why Should You Care? South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called the flag a “nonissue” during her 2014 reelection campaign, but for many Americans the flag is a stark symbol of racially driven terror. The flag has flown over South Carolina’s statehouse since 1962, when it was raised as a challenge to a federal order to desegregate the South.

In 2000, as a compromise between state lawmakers and as the result of a business boycott led by the NAACP, the flag was removed from the statehouse dome to be flown on the lawn as part of a Confederate soldier memorial. An online petition to “remove the Confederate flag from all government places” organized after Wednesday’s killings has attracted more than 300,000 signatures.

Some local supporters of the flag, who herald it as a symbol of their heritage, have also joined the movement to have it removed.

Still, other Southerners continue to demand it stay in place and deny its ties to racial violence.

Meanwhile, Dan Wasserman, an editorial cartoonist for The Boston Globe, poked fun at officials like Haley, who have expressed confusion over what could possibly have motivated the violent attack.

During his confession, Roof allegedly told law enforcement officials that he was motivated to gun down black worshippers in their Bible study session by a desire to start a race war—something he had apparently also told a friend in the months leading up to the attack.

On Saturday, a website featuring photos of Roof along with a white supremacist manifesto surfaced. In the dozens of photos, Roof is seen posing with the confederate flag, holding weapons, and posing in front of various historic sites in the South. It has not been confirmed who wrote the manifesto, though The New York Times reports that the domain name is registered in Roof's name.

Local lawmakers have also joined the #TakeItDown chorus, renewing their fight to have the flag removed from the statehouse lawn.

“My sentiment would be that it be lowered and never put back up,” Rep. Todd Rutherford, leader of South Carolina’s House Democrats, told The Greenville News. “We can’t continue to hang symbols in front of our statehouse and act like nobody is looking.”

Only a supermajority from both the House and Senate in the South Carolina legislature has the power to change the display of the flag.