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              Alabama Governor Orders Confederate Flag Taken Down

   by VOA News

   Alabama Governor Robert Bentley ordered the Confederate flag taken down
   from outside his state's capitol Wednesday after last week's South
   Carolina church shooting of nine African-Americans renewed the
   controversy over the Civil War symbol.

   Bentley called the presence of the controversial flag a distraction
   from major issues. He said lowering it was "the right thing to do."

   The South Carolina Legislature will debate taking down the flag from
   statehouse grounds after Governor Nikki Haley said Monday that it was
   time for it to go.

   Haley said that while many in her state respect the flag, others see it
   as a reminder of a "brutally oppressive past."

   The young white gunman charged with murdering the nine
   African-Americans inside a Charleston, South Carolina, church last week
   is an admitted racist who has been pictured holding the Confederate
   flag.

   Several retail giants, including Sears and Wal-Mart, have said they
   will stop selling Confederate flag products in their stores.

   Meanwhile, the body of one of the church massacre victims -- Pastor
   Clementa Pinckney, who was also a state senator -- lay in state in the
   capitol Wednesday. It was moved there by a horse-drawn carriage.

   Pinckney's body was in an open coffin as mourners passed by with state
   troopers standing guard.

   President Barack Obama, who knew Pinckney, will be in Charleston on
   Friday to deliver the eulogy at his funeral.

   The Confederate flag was the symbol of the Confederate States of
   America -- Southern states that broke away from the United States in
   1861. They fought a Civil War for independence from the federal
   government and for the right to preserve slavery. The rebel states
   surrendered in 1865 after slavery had been outlawed in the U.S.

   People in South Carolina and other states who want to keep flying the
   flag say the banner is about history, pride and family heritage, not
   slavery. They condemn racists who they say have corrupted the flag,
   turning it into a symbol of hate.

   The flag's opponents say no one can escape the fact that it once stood
   for a fight to keep slavery legal and is a constant reminder of white
   supremacy.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/alabama-governor-confederate-flag/283
   6292.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/alabama-governor-confederate-flag/2836292.html