Rev. Jesse Jackson in SC sings Gov. Haley’s praises after meeting

The Rev. Jesse Jackson met with Gov. Nikki Haley on Tuesday during a visit to the State House, signaling improving relations between the Democratic civil rights leader and the Lexington Republican who have sparred in the past.

The Greenville native and civil rights leader told The State he plans on remaining in the state until the Confederate flag comes down from State House grounds.

Jackson and Haley have talked since the mass murder at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church on June 17 and attended several of the victims’ funerals together.

After Jackson met with Haley on Tuesday, he discussed his meeting with the governor, the flag, Medicaid expansion and S.C. State University:

On Haley’s leadership after the June 17 murder of nine African-Americans at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston: Jackson praised Haley for being on what he considers the right side of history, saying, “First, she should be congratulated on how she has helped manage affairs in this crisis. The governor went to nine funerals ... and was received very well by people who didn’t vote for her. ... She brought much consolation to families and some stability to a very big crisis.”

On whether the state should lower the flag: “Bring down the flag and bring down the flag agenda. Blacks and whites must share in the development of the state ... contracts and jobs and services and education and health care.”

On whether Jackson and Haley reconciled after he criticized her in 2012 for backing a new voter ID law and after Haley said he was talking “smack”: “We talked about that. She has a notion that many have that she’s just concerned that people vote who are eligible to vote. That’s been proven over and over that that’s not an issue. The issue is we should not add anymore impediments. We should not make voting more difficult. ... If somebody is guilty of voter fraud, they should be prosecuted. The citizens are innocent until proven guilty. ... But that’s not an issue between us. ... We have an awful lot in common. We can agree to disagree and be civil in our dialogue. I have the utmost respect for her.”

On whether he thinks outsiders are threatening progress on the flag: Jackson said state leaders understood that the church shooting would have a big impact on the state’s economy. Business leaders, he said, started putting pressure on the state by announcing their support for removing the flag. He continued, “That’s why (Haley’s) leadership was so critical because she let in no air between her and the massacre” before announcing her support to bring the flag down.

On the debate over the Confederate flag and what should be done about other monuments: Jackson said that for statues of people “who engaged in those heinous atrocities against humanity, at least the descriptions (on their monuments) should appropriately describe them.” Some of those people, he said, “drove blacks out of state with the politics of terror” when democracy was extended to blacks. Some were lynched, he said. “The NAACP was founded to make lynching a federal crime. We grew up with not just the violence of slavery, but the violence of lynching, and yet we still rise to try to make this a better state.”

On other concerns Jackson said he discussed with Haley: Jackson said the state must accept federal resources for expanding Medicaid, for example, and find ways to help S.C. State University, the state’s only historically black public college that has faced financial and leadership problems. On Haley’s response, Jackson said, “I am very impressed with her sensitivity.”