Editorial: Haley played key role in flag debate

When the call rang out to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the S.C. Statehouse following the murder of nine people in Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, Gov. Nikki Haley could have played it safe. But instead of simply sitting back and letting others take the lead, she spoke out early and forcefully in favor of bringing down the flag, playing a crucial role in the ultimate success of that effort.

Haley, like many South Carolina politicians on both sides of the flag issue, had long assumed that the compromise of 2000, which took down the flag from the Capitol dome but moved it to a Confederate memorial next to the Statehouse, was the end of the discussion. Removing the flag altogether seemed both a political impossibility, requiring a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, and a low priority in a state beset by many other serious challenges.

But the June 17 shooting of nine members of Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church, including its pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, changed Haley’s outlook and galvanized her to join in calling for the flag to come down. She said that on the night of June 19, after families of the victims had offered their forgiveness to suspected shooter Dylann Roof, she make a decision to call for the flag to come down.

Haley is a political animal, and this decision no doubt entailed political calculations. Before publicly declaring her position, she talked with legislators, community leaders and leaders with the state’s chapter of the NAACP.

But on June 22, she publicly urged legislators to take down the flag and send it to a museum.

The next day, the Legislature agreed to add the issue to its special session, beginning the process that eventually led to a vote in both houses to remove the flag. On July 10, Haley signed the bill that made it official.

In the days after the shooting, Haley was highly visible both in lobbying legislators and in publicly mourning the victims. She attended all nine of the funerals and offered a moving eulogy at the funeral of Ethel Lance.

While the state Senate voted overwhelmingly with only three dissenters to remove the flag, the House proved more reluctant. Haley went to the Statehouse to make a personal appeal to House members to follow through on the Senate’s vote and pass a clean bill to bring down the flag.

Although the debate went on until around 1 a.m., with House members voting down more than 20 proposed amendments, the measure finally passed. Haley’s active participation in the process undoubtedly was a factor.

Some will say that bringing down the flag was simply a symbolic gesture. But we shouldn’t discount the power of symbols, especially one as powerful and emotional as this one.

The acknowledgment that the Confederate battle flag is a symbol of hate and oppression to many, both black and white, reverberated not only in South Carolina but also across the nation. It has helped spark a widespread discussion about conflicting views of history and how the enduring reverence for the Confederate cause has adversely affected the lives of African-Americans since the end of the Civil War.

That is no small thing. And those who worked to enable this debate by bringing down the flag more than 50 years after it was placed on the Statehouse dome deserve high praise.

We are grateful that Haley played a prominent role in putting a forward-looking and compassionate face on this state.

This story was originally published July 14, 2015 at 7:21 PM with the headline "Editorial: Haley played key role in flag debate."