As South Carolina Honors Victims, Alabama Lowers Its Flags

The Confederate flag flew high Wednesday outside the South Carolina Statehouse, but a large drape kept mourners from seeing it as they filed past the open casket of a veteran black lawmaker and pastor.
The slayings of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney and eight others inside their historic black church is prompting national soul-searching over historic but divisive symbols. The makeshift drape obscuring the secessionist battle flag only emphasized how quickly this symbol of Southern pride has fallen into official disrepute.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley became the first southern governor to use his executive power to remove Confederate banners, as four flags with secessionist symbols were taken down Wednesday from a large monument to rebel soldiers outside that state's capitol.