Hundreds of people gathered at South Carolina’s state house on Saturday night in support of demands lawmakers remove the Confederate flag from flying on its grounds in the aftermath of the Charleston killings where the shooter killed nine people because they were black.

The 6pm rally was organized in less than 48 hours through a Facebook post and word of mouth. Several activists spoke on a small riser facing the flag – a symbol of the Confederacy, which seceded from the Union in defense of slavery but surrendered 150 years ago at the end of the civil war.

The rally came as the FBI and local authorities said they were investigating a website that may contain a white supremacist manifesto created by Dylann Roof before he shot dead nine black churchgoers earlier in the week.

The provenance of the website, which contains a cache of photographs of the 21-year-old in which he is seen holding a pistol or standing beside the Confederate flag, is unclear.

At the rally at the state house in Columbia, Stephanie Bradley, a black woman and mother of three young children, said that because of the shooting she had to explain to them for the first time what the Confederate flag means.



To her the flag has always immediately brought to mind racism inflicted on black people throughout the course of US history. “I see the KKK, I see burning crosses, I see burning churches, I see raping, lynching, I see all of that,” she said.

In the wake of the shooting prominent Republicans and Democrats have come out against the flag. Earlier on Saturday the former republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney added an unexpected voice to the push to take down the flag when he called for the it to be removed in a Twitter post.’

Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol. To many, it is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now to honor #Charleston victims.

President Barack Obama said on Friday that the flag deserved to be in a museum, not flying in the state capital. A number of South Carolina lawmakers, who worked alongside state senator and shooting victim Clementa Pinckney, have also called for it to be taken down and one has promised to introduce a bill that would force its removal in the next legislative session.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Confederate flag flies next to a monument to victims of the civil war in Columbia. Photograph: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty

However the South Carolina senator and Republican presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham said at a Friday vigil for the victims that further debate was needed, without saying which side of the debate he falls on. Governor Nicki Haley has indicated that her hands are tied – the legislature would need to vote by a two-thirds majority to take it down. “I think the state will start talking about that again and we’ll see where it goes,” Haley said on Friday.

But the issue is urgent for people like Bradley, who said her children were afraid to come to the rally because of the shooting. “I hope that my children never have to see what I’ve seen in my generation,” she said. “[I want them to] not be harassed by officers because they think they are someone they are not.”

Though Columbia’s downtown is far from a busy metropolis, car horns honked constantly through the rally – adding to the jovial atmosphere that rose above the 97 degree temperature and 41% humidity. But it was also marked by pain – with speakers reciting the names of the nine victims and holding a moment of silence.

The suspected killer had confederate flags on his license plate and appears in many photos of himself posted on a website bearing a racist manifesto.

Dylann Roof: FBI probes website and manifesto linked to Charleston suspect Read more

“I think that this flag is probably one of the reasons we had the thing that happened last week,” said Lawerence Moore, a black man born and raised in South Carolina, who said he had been waiting his whole life to see the flag taken down. He had also attended the rallies that preceded the removal of the flag from the state house dome in 2000 to its new location on the grounds, which many noted brought it closer to the average persons eye line.

“You won’t be able to change people’s hearts unless you take that flag down,” Moore said.

Towards the end of the one and a half hour rally the crowd joined hands and sang We Shall Overcome – which has also been sung on the streets of Charleston as citizens gather to honor the shooting victims.

Amanda Holpuch (@holpuch) Demonstrators hold hands and sing We Shall Overcome to end #takedownthatflag rally https://t.co/YgDAYxZBj3





