Days after a man believed to be a white supremacist allegedly massacred nine people in a historic black South Carolina church, people from across the country, including the state’s governor, are calling for the Confederate flag to be removed from the Statehouse.
Officials say Dylann Storm Roof, 21, murdered the victims at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston after sitting in their Bible study for about an hour on June 17. A racist website believed to be registered to him, and containing photos of Roof waving the Confederate flag later surfaced. In his Manifesto posted on the site, Roof said his goal for the killings was to start a race war.
Since the photos and website surfaced, the call to do away with the flag has gained bipartisan support, and major retailers Walmart and Sears have pledged to remove Confederate flag merchandise from their shelves.
Officials in other Southern states are also calling to remove its likeness from their state flags.
The controversial flag was the Confederacy’s battlefield flag — not its official flag — during the Civil War. However, some southern states started flying it during the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights Movement in defiance of federal integration laws. That’s why the flag has been controversial in the past and calls to removed it from the South Carolina Statehouse have been renewed.
Still supporters of the flag say it’s a symbol of their Southern heritage and history. So we reached out to our followers on social media to see what they think. Here are some of their reactions:
<a href=""https://twitter.com/whiotv"">@whiotv</a> I believe it's heritage. Ppl made it what it is 2day. Everyone is so quick to label something & attach hate to it.
<a href=""https://twitter.com/whiotv"">@whiotv</a> While it has its place in history, like the Nazi flag, it's always been a flag about "superior races"; that's a racist heritage.
Racism. period point blank. <a href=""https://t.co/iYKYDGnlbF"">https://t.co/iYKYDGnlbF</a>
<a href=""https://twitter.com/whiotv"">@whiotv</a> HISTORY!!!! People are getting crazy about stuff and pretty soon all our history will be "erased" because someone is "offended".
<a href=""https://twitter.com/whiotv"">@whiotv</a> southern history and heritage! I know many people who fly it and it's not for racism!
<a href=""https://twitter.com/whiotv"">@whiotv</a> The Confederate States of America had three different flags, the one flying on the grounds of the statehouse in SC was not 1 of them
<a href=""https://twitter.com/whiotv"">@whiotv</a> It perpetuates hate and racism. <a href=""https://twitter.com/hashtag/TakeDownTheFlag?src=hash"">#TakeDownTheFlag</a>
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
