McConnell: Time to move the Confederate flag

Glenn McConnell, the former state Senate leader who fought previous attempts to banish the Confederate flag from the State House grounds, said Thursday the time has come to remove the Civil War banner.

“Many ... citizens regard the old soldier’s banner as a fitting memorial to the Confederate dead,” McConnell, now president of the College of Charleston, said in a statement. “However, on State House grounds, we should seek to respect the views of all citizens as best we reasonably can. Therefore, I support Gov. Haley’s call to remove the Confederate soldier’s flag from State House grounds as a visible statement of courtesy and good will to all those who may be offended by it.”

McConnell, a Civil War buff and Confederate soldier reenactor, said he opposes calls to remove other Confederate memorials in the aftermath of the slayings of nine African-American parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston last week.

“In a spirit of good will and mutual respect, let us all agree that the monuments, cemeteries, historic street and building names shall be preserved and protected,” McConnell said. “How sad it would be to end one controversy only to trigger a thousand more. The people of South Carolina are entitled to their complete history, the parts that give us pride as well as sadness.”

The Republican was an architect of the compromise in 2000 to move the Confederate flag from the State House dome to a soldiers’ memorial at Gervais and Main streets, on the north side of the capitol grounds. That compromise also included adding an African-American monument to the State House grounds.

Former Gov. David Bealsey said Thursday the former Senate leader’s support ends any “serious debate” on keeping the flag on the State House grounds. Beasley lost a re-election bid in 1998 in part because of his efforts to move the flag off the Capitol dome.

“Just shows you that God is still in the job of miracle making,” Beasley said.

This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 5:16 PM with the headline "McConnell: Time to move the Confederate flag."