New photos released, taken by Roof of State House’s former Confederate flag

Since Dylann Roof was arrested for the slayings of nine black parishioners at a Charleston church, a few photos of the Columbia self-avowed white supremacist with the Confederate battle flag have circulated, taken from Roof’s Internet site.

But Tuesday, at Roof’s federal death penalty trial, prosecutors introduced numerous other photos of Roof, 22, with the Confederate banner – at antebellum plantations, at the house where he was staying and, most prominently, at the S.C. State House.

Roof’s undated photos included one of the Confederate battle flag, in a place of honor in front of the State House, with another showing the banner flying in the breeze.

When the photos taken from Roof’s website were published, the resulting controversy reignited the call for the removal of the rebel banner.

The flag, which flew as part of the State House’s Confederate Soldier Monument, had done so since 2000, when it was taken down from the capitol dome after flying there since 1962.

Five days after the June 17, 2015, massacre, Gov. Nikki Haley called on state lawmakers to pass legislation that would remove the flag. They did.

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, was among those who vehemently argued in favor of the flag’s furling, arguing it represented a divisive past and that having it flying on state property was an endorsement of that time.

But legislators did not know at the time when they ordered the flag’s removal that Roof had come to admire that specific monument at the State House.

“Since we have taken the flag down, that area no longer represents the place where mean-spirited people come to congregate,” said Rutherford on Tuesday. “There were people who gathered in that area, trying to sow the seeds of division. Dylann Roof was no different.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 8:33 PM with the headline "New photos released, taken by Roof of State House’s former Confederate flag."