Polarized South Carolina House Will Determine Fate of the Confederate Flag

Three weeks after the mass shooting at a predominantly black church in Charleston, the South Carolina House of Representatives is expected on Wednesday to step into the freshly revived debate about whether the Confederate battle flag should remain on the grounds of the State House.

 

With the flag perhaps facing its final days outside the Capitol, lawmakers have been circulating drafts of dozens of amendments that could jeopardize a bill that calls for the state to remove the flag and send it to the nearby Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.

“The truth is that any amendment either leaves the flag up or keeps us in legislative session all summer long,” said Representative Norman D. Brannon, Republican of Spartanburg County, who has called for the flag’s removal.

Some of the draft amendments call for other Confederate symbols to fly in lieu of the battle flag. Another is expected to demand that the American flag, which flies atop the State House dome, be placed upside down.