South Carolina legislature brings down Confederate flag
Washington
The divisive Confederate flag came down today at South Carolina's legislature, drawing a line under a furor rekindled last month by the murder of nine black churchgoers by a young white supremacist.
Thousands gathered at the State House in Columbia to cheer the removal of the red, white and blue Civil War-era battle flag, regarded by many as a bitter symbol of racism and slavery that has no place in modern America.
Many chanted "U-S-A! U-S-A!" as a state police honor guard in white gloves ceremoniously lowered the flag and then neatly folded it under brilliant sunshine.
"A signal of good will and healing, and a meaningful step towards a better future," President Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, said on Twitter.
The flag has been a focal point of controversy in South Carolina -- birthplace of the Confederacy -- since it was raised in the early 1960s atop the State House dome in defiance of the civil rights movement then sweeping the United States.
It was relocated in 2000 to a 30-foot (10-meter) flag pole alongside a memorial to Confederate war dead on the State House lawn.
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