- 2 hours ago
- US & Canada
Pressure is mounting to withdraw the Confederate battle flag across the US, after South Carolina lawmakers called for its removal from the state house.
Protesters rallied in Columbia on Tuesday to demand the flag's removal from South Carolina's state capitol.
Efforts are under way in four other states - Texas, Mississippi, Virginia and Tennessee - to remove state-sponsored Confederate tributes.
And some major retailers like Amazon and Walmart are also removing it.
The murder of nine parishioners at a historical black church in Charleston, South Carolina, last week renewed debate about the place of the flag in US culture.
The suspect, Dylann Roof, has appeared in many photos holding the flag.
The Confederate battle flag became a potent symbol for the southern states fighting the Civil War as they sought to break away from the union.
It is seen by some as an icon of slavery and racism while others say the banner symbolises their heritage and history.
South Carolina's governor, Nikki Haley, has said the flag should come down and urged the legislature to act - it would require a two-thirds majority vote for that to happen.
A day later, Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe announced he wants to have the flag removed from state licence plates. A recent US Supreme Court decision said states can restrict such designs.
In Mississippi, lawmakers plan on rolling out legislation that would remove the Confederate symbol from the state flag, where it is prominently displayed in the upper left corner.
"As a Christian, I believe our state's flag has become a point of offence that needs to be removed," said Mississippi representative Phillip Gunn.
But former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour said he was not offended at all by it.
Lawmakers in Tennessee said they need to "revisit" whether a bust of a former Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader should be displayed in the capitol.
The likeness of Nathan Bedford Forrest has sat in a state Senate chamber for decades.
The push was not only limited to state governments as Walmart, Sears, Amazon and eBay announced that they would stop selling Confederate flag merchandise.
On the scene - Aleem Maqbool, BBC News, Columbia
In the demonstration outside the state capitol, there were just as many white protesters as black, if not more.
Some said they had always recognised the confederate flag was a racist symbol, others said that while they felt that the flag was important in terms of heritage they had come to realise it was offensive to many and so had to be consigned to museums.
African Americans unanimously told us they felt insulted by the confederate flag and had long wanted it gone.
Some expressed disappointment that it had taken the deaths of nine people for politicians who had once defended the flying of the flag beside official buildings, to finally acknowledge how divisive a symbol it was.
Amid calls for Confederate tributes to be removed, some have been the target of vandals.
In downtown Charleston, a statue of former politician and defender of slavery John C Calhoun was defaced with the word "racist" scrawled underneath.
Birth of a flag
- seen today on houses, bumper stickers and T-shirts
- sometimes accompanied by the words "If this shirt offends you, you need a history lesson"
- but it was never the official national flag of the Confederacy, rejected in 1861
- instead adopted as battle flag by the Army of Northern Virginia under General Lee
- it fast became a potent symbol of Confederate nationalism, more popular than the official national flag
- BBC
