“Every day that it is flown by the South Carolina government, it sends the message to racists and extremists that they are welcome in the state.”
The flag, also known as Stars and Bars, represented the Confederate States of America, an unrecognized confederation of slave-owning states in the south of the United States. The confederation was formed in 1861 in opposition to Abraham Lincoln’s presidential platform that stood against slavery in the United States.
Controversy surrounding the Confederate flag erupted following a June 17, 2015 racially-charged massacre, when a young white man, Dylann Storm Roof, shot dead nine African-Americans in a Charleston historic black church.
Several photographs depicting Roof alongside Confederate flags have been posted on a website allegedly connected with him.
Galland explained that Americans now see the flag as a symbol of racism, prompting renewed calls for its removal.
“The Confederate flag is one of America’s most potent symbols of white supremacy and generations of slavery and discrimination.”
On June 22, 2015, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for the flag’s removal from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol building following the massacre.
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