The Charleston tragedy has sparked controversy over whether or not the Confederate flag should fly at the state’s capitol, even causing the hashtag #ConfederateFlag to trend on social media. While many people, perhaps most notably South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, have now called to remove the flag because of the racism and hatred it signifies, this is not the first time this debate has been brought to light. And prior to the South Carolina shooting, many citizens, including politicians, did not feel as strongly as they do now about what the flag symbolizes.
In 1994, a vote to remove the flag was passed by the State senate but the House never voted, so action was never taken. Several more attempts in the 1990s to take the flag down proved to be in vain.
But throughout the 1990s, the flag had many prominent political supporters. In 1999, former state Sen. Joe Wilson deemed it “offensive” that people associated the flag with a “Holocaust era-type description,” calling Southern and Confederate heritage “very honorable.” Former State Sen. Glenn McConnell was also vehemently opposed to removing the flag: “This state is not going to succumb to economic terrorism. We are a democratic government and don’t take dictates well.”
