Congressman John Fleming Says South Carolina Should Remove Confederate Flag

For 15 years, South Carolina lawmakers have refused to revisit the Confederate flag's flying on Statehouse grounds, saying the 2000 law that took it off the dome was a bipartisan compromise and renewing that debate would unnecessarily expose divisive wounds.

But opinions changed within five days of the massacre of nine people at a black church in Charleston, as a growing tide of Republicans joined the call to put the battle flag in a museum. Yesterday, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley not only called for the flag's removal, but pledged to order legislators back to Columbia for another special session if they don't deal with it themselves.

Louisiana Congressman John Fleming talked about the flag issue with KEEL News:

I think it's time to remove it. If there's something that's so in the face offensive to a part of our society, namely African Americans, it's a reminder of a time of slavery. Certainly it's a reminder of Jim Crow. Why not put it in a museum where it belongs. We're all Americans now. Let's stand under the American flag.

Removing the flag won't be easy, despite the shifting sentiment. A two-thirds majority will be needed to bring it down.

The conversation has also restarted in Mississippi and Tennessee.