It took the actions of a white supremacist to finally convince white political leaders in South Carolina to call for the Confederate flag to be brought down. While the move was widely applauded, the gesture was largely symbolic and further proof that staunch, long-held beliefs can easily change with enough public pressure.
Even Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, and one of Fair360, formerly DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies for 2015 which has sold Confederate flag-related merchandise for decades announced Monday night that it is removing all merchandise depicting the flag from its stores and website to avoid “offend[ing] anyone.”
Reacting to days of relentless pressure from social media, the mainstream media, civil rights activists and others, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley held a news conference Monday to call on state lawmakers remove the flag from Statehouse grounds. Standing together with Haley was South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a 2016 presidential candidate, who just last week defended the flag as “part of who we are.”
