NAACP's Flag Rebellion Is Not Over
The flag is coming down, but the fight is not over.
South Carolina's two houses voted Thursday for a measure to remove the Confederate battle flag from atop the statehouse and fly it at a nearby monument. The House voted 66-43 at mid-afternoon and the Senate voted for the bill, 35-8, minutes later.
The bill now goes to Gov. Jim Hodges, who has said he would sign any agreement reached by the House and Senate.
A six-member conference committee agreed that the flag should be moved to a 30-foot flagpole at a monument to Confederate war dead on the Statehouse grounds.
Speaking on the CBS News Early Show Friday morning, State Sen. Glenn McConnell said the compromise will protect the historical significance of the battle flag. But a top NAACP official took the opposite view.
Thursday's compromise is fiercely opposed by the NAACP and many black lawmakers who say it still would be too prominent.
"This is more of an insult," NAACP James Gallman said Friday. Gallman and others want the flag removed from the capital grounds entirely, adding the people like Sen. McConnell "got exactly what they wanted. They have not given anything."
McConnell countered that most South Carolinians, white and black, support the compromise legislation, according to opinion polls.
On the NAACP boycott, McConnell did say: "It caused the issue to come to the front page."
But Gallman said the NAACP boycott will not end, and will in fact intensify, until the flag is removed completely. Gallman said NAACP officials will talk to Hollywood and other major benefactors of the state's economy to hold off their projects.
"This is not acceptable," Gallman said.
McConnell countered that the NAACP risks isolation if it intensifies its boycotting.
"The boycott will melt with the summer heat," he said.
Earlier Thursday, the House had overwhelmingly rejected the Senate's compromise plan for a 25-foot flagpole at the monument and insisted on a 30-foot pole.
South Carolina is the only state that flies the Confederate flag above its Statehouse.
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