TAKE IT DOWN!

[OneAngryDemocrat]

Here and elsewhere, I've seen a lot of recent posts wherein folks have proposed burning confederate flags to protest the SC government's institutionalized racism, and the confederate battle flag flying over the state capitol.

I have a BETTER idea.

I envision a peaceful march of about two or three thousand activists from the scene of the crime @ the AME church to the state capitol, and, once there, the group would try and peaceably take the fucking traitors' flag down themselves, the world press invited to witness the event.

Local police would then have a couple of options to consider - none of them good for the state's image nor for the image of local law enforcement.

[marble falls]

1. Tear it down! I need a road trip that stands for something good and rightous.

[marble falls]

2. Just saw this:

South Carolina's Confederate Flag Comes Down
Controversial confederate flag removed from the statehouse
by Borgna Brunner


This article was posted on June 30, 2000.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/confederate4.html

In 1962 the Confederate battle flag was placed on top of the South Carolina statehouse by vote of the all-white legislature. While other Southern states removed the flag from their statehouses, South Carolina refused to follow suit. This prompted the NAACP to organize a national economic boycott against South Carolina's $14 billion-a-year tourism industry, and since the summer of 1999, more than 100 conventions and business organizations have participated in the boycott. The boycott is considered one of the largest since the 1970s. The NAACP's president, Kweisi Mfume, said of the boycott, "this is a trigger you don't want to pull until all else has failed. In the case of South Carolina, after 38 years of negotiating even the NAACP has a limit to its patience."

Inflammatory remarks by state senator Arthur Ravenel made national headlines in Jan. 2000 when he defended the flying of the Southern Cross, referring to the NAACP as the "the National Association of Retarded People." He then apologized to "retarded people" for associating them with the NAACP. At the time of the the February Republican presidential primary, party differences on the issue were thrown in sharp relief: the Republican contenders declined to take a stand except to say that the issue was a state matter; the Democrats were outspokenly against the flag remaining.

On April 12, 2000, the South Carolina state senate finally passed a bill to remove the flag by a majority of 36-7. The bill specified that a more traditional version of the battle flag (square shaped as opposed to the rectangular flag now flying above the statehouse) would be flown in front of the Capitol next to a monument honoring fallen Confederate soldiers. The bill then went to the House, where it encountered some difficulty. But on May 18, 2000, after the bill was modified to ensure that the height of the flag's new pole would be 30 feet, it was passed by a majority of 66 to 43, and Governor Jim Hodges signed the bill five days later. On July 1, the flag was removed from the South Carolina statehouse.

The bill has not appeased everyone, however: the NAACP has not called off its boycott because they feel that the flag's new position on the Capitol lawn is still too prominent.

[marble falls]

3. Wait till you read about Arthur Ravenel.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ravenel,_Jr.

[SCantiGOP]

4. I was in the march

King Day, January 2000, a crowd estimated at 40,000 marched on the Statehouse to demand removal of the flag from the dome. As OP explains, it came down that year but was placed behind a Confederate soldier monument in front if the building where it remains.
And, current Charleston mayor Riley led a march from Charleston to the statehouse that year to protest the flag.

[marble falls]

5. The powers that be be the powers what are. Still its hard to believe they trumped 40k in the street.

If it comes down to another march I will come from Texas to march with you.