CHARLESTON--Tuesday, lawmakers in South Carolina voted to take up the issue of the Confederate flag at the state Capitol later this summer. This comes as hundreds of people gathered on the grounds of the Capitol to protest its presence on state grounds.
South Carolina senator and Republican presidential candidate, Lindsey Graham, says the flag must go. “God help South Carolina if we fail to achieve the goal of removing the flag,” said Graham.
However, doing so won’t be easy. Some lawmakers say this is bad timing, especially with families still grieving following the deaths of nine church members in last week's racially motivated shooting. “It's unfortunate that it would appear to some that we're leveraging their grief,” said Republican state Sen. Mike Fair.
But the Confederate conflict isn't limited to South Carolina. Leaders in Mississippi want to redesign their state's flag because it bears the controversial emblem.
Also, North Carolina and Virginia’s governors wasted no time demanding the Confederate flag be removed from specialty license plates.
This isn't just a political move; some of the nation's largest retailers, like Walmart, are pulling all Confederate flags and clothing from shelves online and in stores after the suspected shooter was seen in many photos posing by the Confederate flag.
Target, Sears, Amazon.com and eBay are also discontinuing the sale of Confederate flag merchandise.