Bentley orders Confederate flags removed from Capitol
A week after a white man shot and killed nine people in a historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C., Governor Robert Bentley ordered the Confederate flag be removed from the state Capitol grounds.
According to area news reports, the Confederate flag was quietly removed from the Capitol building by workers shortly after 8 a.m. this morning.
Bentley was asked if he ordered the flags be removed shortly afterward, and he affirmed that he had made the call to take them down. An article from the Huffington Post quoted Bentley saying it was “the right thing to do.”
Bentley reportedly made the decision, in part, because of the accused Charleston gunman Dylann Storm Roof’s proud display of the Confederate flag. He was also quoted saying he didn’t want the flag’s presence at the Capitol to become a distraction during budget and other matters that are more pressing.
Other Confederate-era flags were removed from the grounds in addition to the Confederate battle flag.