Wednesday night: Dueling demonstrations at SC State House over Confederate flag

About 50 people gathered at the State House Wednesday in dueling demonstrations for and against the Confederate flag.

About half of the crowd were flag supporters, who lined the top of the State House steps yelling chants across the lawn to flag opponents, the other half of the crowd, who yelled back.

Flag protesters then moved from Gervais Street to the State House steps.

S.C. Highway Patrol officers at first asked the flag opponents to move away from the flag supporters. One officer told a flag protester he wanted to “keep the peace.”

Eventually, patrolmen let the protesters remain on the lower steps and formed a line between the two groups that ensued in a shouting debate of their positions on the flag.

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 8:33 PM.