|
 U.S. retailers joined lawmakers in distancing themselves from the
banner, with industry leaders Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> and Wal-Mart
Stores Inc <WMT.N> pulling the images of the rebel flag from their
stores and websites, joining Google Inc <GOOGL.O>, Sears Holdings
Corp <SHLD.O> and eBay Inc <EBAY.O>.
The Civil War-era flag of the South's pro-slavery Confederacy has
become a lightning rod for outrage over the shootings in Charleston,
South Carolina, which authorities say was motivated by racial
hatred.
In Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, hundreds of people
chanted "Take it down," while state lawmakers voted on Tuesday to
open debate on removing the Confederate flag from the State House
grounds.
Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white man charged with nine counts of
murder for the shooting at the church last Wednesday, had posed with
a Confederate flag in photos posted online with a racist manifesto.
 'TO FOSTER RACIAL UNITY'
Just hours after politicians in several southern states began
calling for the removal of the Confederate flag on Monday, some of
the nation's largest retailers announced they were halting sales of
related merchandise.
Prominent U.S. flag makers said on Tuesday they would stop
manufacturing and selling Confederate flags.
"We hope that this decision will show our support for those affected
by the recent events in Charleston and, in some small way, help to
foster racial unity and tolerance in our country," the
Pennsylvania-based Valley Forge Flag company said in a statement.
The debate over the rebel flag spread to other southern states on
Tuesday.
In Mississippi, the state which still most prominently incorporates
the "Stars and Bars" in its flag, Speaker of the House Philip Gunn
became the first Republican in state history to publicly support a
flag change when he called the Confederate emblem "a point of
offense that needs to be removed."
Virginia, which was also part of the Confederacy, will no longer
allow special vehicle license plates for the Sons of Confederate
Veterans group that feature the flag, Governor Terry McAuliffe said
on Tuesday. Georgia's governor said he would seek to redesign a
similar license plate in his state.
Opponents of the flag consider it an emblem of slavery, racism and
U.S. xenophobia. Supporters say it represents the South's heritage
and culture, as well as a memorial to Confederate casualties during
the 1861-65 Civil War.
MORE COMPLEX ISSUE, CRITICS SAY
Critics said the Confederate flag, while powerful in its symbolism,
was perhaps a far simpler matter to address than the far more
complex U.S. issues of racism, discrimination against African
Americans and inequality.
As the Confederate flag fluttered only yards away on the grounds of
the South Carolina State House, a crowd of about 1,000 listened to
politicians and civil rights leaders voice their support for taking
down the battle flag.
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"Anyone who gets in front of this train is going to get run over,"
said Leon Howard, a state legislator, referring to the political
momentum gathering behind the initiative.
Until recently Republican Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina had
been unwilling to discuss the flag.
“The change in opinion in the last day or two is like nothing I have
ever seen. It’s been a tidal wave,” said College of Charleston
political science professor Gibbs Knotts.
The crowd heard prayers offered in the memory of State Senator
Clementa Pinckney, a longtime advocate of the flag's removal.
Pinckney, pastor of the Charleston church, was one of the shooting
victims. President Barack Obama will attend his funeral on Friday.
The Confederate flag controversy is the latest flashpoint in a year
of intense debate over U.S. race relations, sparked by the killings
of unarmed black men by police officers in Ferguson, Missouri; New
York City; and Baltimore. The outcry has spawned a reinvigorated
civil rights movement under the "Black Lives Matter" banner.
Governor Haley threw her support behind removing the flag on Monday.
She called on lawmakers, whose legislative year wraps up this week,
to address the issue over the summer and said she would order a
special session if they did not.
It would take a two-thirds majority vote by both chambers of the
legislature to undo the state law that requires the flag to fly at a
memorial to Confederate soldiers on the State House grounds.
That law was the result of a 2000 compromise that removed it from
atop the State House, where it was first put up a half century ago
at the peak of resistance to federal efforts to end segregation in
the South.
(Additional reporting by Emily Le Coz in Jackson, Mississippi and
David Adams in Miami; Writing by Frank McGurty and Howard Goller;
Editing by James Dalgleish and Lisa Shumaker)
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