Confederate flag splits House

State lawmakers struggle over displaying controversial banner on grounds of Capitol

Web posted May 10, 2000

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By Margaret N. O'Shea
South Carolina Bureau

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina's House of Representatives is only a few votes shy of removing a Confederate flag from its Capitol dome and legislative chambers, but those few votes were elusive Tuesday as the House painfully struggled with what members say seems simple to outsiders but clearly is not easy for them.

If the House passes a Senate compromise that puts a similar battle flag near a monument to Southern soldiers, at least five black members will have to agree, Republican Majority Leader Rick Quinn of Columbia said late Tuesday after a day of emotional, but polite, debate.

The Black Legislative Caucus favored a plan that would have put a bronze flag behind the soldiers' monument with an inscription that conceded the flag's divisive role in South Carolina history. Flag supporters called that plan an insult, saying the marker it called for looked like a tombstone.

``We're not dead yet,'' said Wagener Republican Charles R. Sharpe. ``We're not burying anything.''

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which is conducting an economic boycott of South Carolina because of the ``slavery'' flag over its seat of government, does not like the Senate plan, which makes the flag even more visible at ground level than it is now. That's a serious problem for black lawmakers, most of whom are active members of the NAACP. But all but one black senator went along to put the issue to rest and start healing in the divided state.

On Tuesday, the House also defeated 37 of 40 other amendments, including one that Mr. Sharpe offered that would have flown a Confederate flag on the dome, if the current flag is taken down, three days a year: Confederate Memorial Day and the birthdays of Gen. Robert E. Lee, chief commander of Confederate forces, and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.

Another defeated amendment would have delayed taking down the flag until all orders for flags that flew over the Statehouse have been filled. Two defeated amendments would have put the flag issue on the November general election ballot for voters to decide, but the state Supreme Court made it clear last year with video poker that such referenda cannot be binding on the Legislature, which is elected to make such decisions.

While the House debated, state employees were busy on the roof of the Capitol at a little-known flagpole, running up Confederate flags and quickly taking them down. House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, said that's necessary because there are as many as 1,200 orders a day to be filled. In South Carolina, people can buy flags that flew over the Capitol, and Confederate flags are in hot demand.

The House has at least 40 more proposed amendments to the Senate plan to consider today before coming to a final up-or-down vote on it. The only amendments that have passed would make the flagpole for the Confederate flag 30 feet high instead of 20 and clarify that ``52 inches square'' means 52 inches on each side, not a little more than 7 inches, as some had interpreted the Senate's details. The Senate agreed to a 20-foot pole under the mistaken belief that the soldiers' monument is 5 feet shorter than it really is.

Those are changes the Senate is likely to accept, although members have said drastic changes will not be agreeable. If the two houses cannot agree, the flag will stay where it is -- and that's the double-edged sword hanging over the House.

In the lobby and balcony, flag supporters -- who turned out in force Tuesday -- said that's now what they hope for.

In the daylong voting, amendments served as tests of how a final vote might stack up. If that analysis holds, two Aiken representatives are among some two dozen who clearly will not vote for anything that takes the Confederate flag down. They are Mr. Sharpe and Rep. J. Roland Smith, R-Langley.

Rep. Bill Clyburn, D-Aiken, made an impassioned plea for dialogue and healing during the debate Tuesday. So far, he has voted with the Black Legislative Caucus. Rep. Robert ``Skipper'' Perry, R-Aiken, voted to table most of the amendments that came up. He has indicated, however, that he does not favor putting a Confederate flag at the solidiers' monument.

Reach Margaret N. O'Shea at (803) 279-6895.