Dueling rallies planned for anniversary of Confederate flag removal at SC State House
Dueling events at the S.C. State House will mark the five-year anniversary of the removal of the Confederate flag on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, five years to the day after the Confederate battle flag was removed from the State House grounds after a two-thirds vote by the Legislature, the grounds will be split between supporters and opponents of the banner.
In the morning, the State House Monument Honour Guard will gather on the Gervais Street side of the State House from 8 to 11:45 a.m., followed by an event from the Columbia Racial Justice Coalition from 1:15 to 5 p.m., according to event permits issued by the S.C. Department of Administration.
Observances continue on Saturday, when the group Flags Across the South will fly the flag again from a temporary flagpole near the Confederate Soldiers Monument from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The schedule follows a pattern established last year, when a handful of flag supporters gathered early on July 10 after the racial justice group’s predecessor, Showing Up for Racial Justice, reserved the State House grounds for most of the day in order to prevent any pro-flag rally from being held on the anniversary itself.
This year, the dueling groups submitted simultaneous requests to reserve the grounds on July 10, so the area was split throughout the day between flag supporters and opponents, said Laura Nicklin, the organizer for the racial justice coalition.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Nicklin said the event will be more low key than last year, when several different progressive groups set up tables outside the State House. She expects a smaller, socially distanced turnout with no set agenda, although Nicklin said she hopes people will come out as long as they wear masks and practice social distancing.
“We did not invite other groups just because of the pandemic,” Nicklin said. “We’re conscious of COVID-19, so we don’t really want to encourage people to come out. There’s nothing really formal planned.”
Nicklin said the same group will be out early Friday to protest the event by the Monument Honour Guard. Organizer Matthew Locke declined to talk to The State about any plans for that event.
The anniversary of the flag removal has become a flash point since the flag was taken down in 2015, after a white supremacist from Columbia shot and killed nine people in a historically Black church in Charleston. The flag had flown from a pole beside the soldiers monument along Gervais Street as part of a 2000 compromise that removed the flag from the dome of the S.C. State House, where the Confederate flag had been displayed since 1962.
Past events have featured a heavy police presence and barricades separating opposing groups of protesters. The permitting system for groups using the State House grounds was established after dueling rallies were organized by the Ku Klux Klan and a group affiliated with the New Black Panther Party in 2015 after the flag’s removal.
For three years in a row from 2016 to 2018, the flag was flown with much fanfare from a temporary pole on the anniversary by the S.C. Secessionist Party, a now-defunct group that advocated for South Carolina to secede from the union.
That legacy will be continue on Saturday, when Flags Across the South will host another flag-raising at the site.
“We plan to carry on as we have in the past, with the flag and with guest speakers,” said organizer Braxton Spivey, who held a similar event last year on the Saturday following the anniversary in hopes of attracting more flag supporters on a weekend.
Spivey said his event would also seek to maintain social distance during the flag raising and any subsequent speeches, but the wearing of face masks would be optional for attendees. The city of Columbia currently mandates wearing face masks in situations where people are unable to maintain a six-foot distance from other people. The city said Wednesday that requirement is not enforced on the State House grounds.
The pandemic may dampen turnout at a time when racial issues are otherwise at the forefront of discourse across the country. Columbia hosted weeks of protests against systemic racism and police brutality after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. Some of those protests ended in violent clashes with local police and a series of arrests.
This year’s rally also follows another setback for the rebel banner. Last month, the Mississippi legislature voted to remove a Confederate emblem from the Mississippi state flag, the last flag in the South to officially incorporate the symbol.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 11:22 AM.
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