Confederate flag coming back to the SC State House on Tuesday

Here's what happened when the flag was raised again:

COLUMBIA, SC - The Confederate flag is coming back to the S.C. State House, at least for one day.

On Tuesday, members of the S.C. Secessionist Party will raise the rebel banner on a temporary pole in front of the State House's Gervais Street steps.

The 10 a.m. ceremony will mark the third anniversary of the flag's permanent removal from the State House grounds after the Emanuel AME Church massacre.

The Secessionists have a permit to keep the flag in place until 5 p.m. Tuesday. However, party chairman James Bessenger says they plan to take it down by 3 p.m.

"We don't want to keep the cops out there in the heat any longer than they have to be," Bessenger said.

It is the third time the party will have raised the flag in front of the State House. Each July 10 since the flag was removed, the party has been permitted to put the flag back up in the same spot — near the Confederate soldiers' monument — where it was displayed from 2000 to 2015.

The past two anniversaries drew about 100 flag supporters, who think the banner was unfairly targeted after nine worshipers were killed in a historically black church in Charleston by a self-declared white supremacist.

Bessenger said he expects this year's rally to draw a little less than 100. The Secessionists, a small group that advocates for South Carolina once again leaving the union, will be joined for the first time by a couple of speakers from the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

"Our two groups have not always had the friendliest relationship," Bessenger said. "We are more active and in your face, while they tend to be more politically correct. But we do share a lot of common ground."

The flag-raising events also have drawn protesters, who were separated from flag supporters by law enforcement. This year, the group Showing Up for Racial Justice is planning its own "flag removal celebration" for the same time as the flag raising.

"I think a lot of the reason people will be there is they believe in the myth the 'Lost Cause' narrative promotes; that the Confederacy was heroic, that enslaved people were happy, that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War," said group co-leader Sarah Keeling. "It's important to show up so it's clear not everyone in South Carolina agrees with this."

This story was originally published July 9, 2018 at 9:33 AM.