COLUMBIA, South Carolina: With protesters outside and the desk of a slain member draped in black, the South Carolina Senate voted overwhelmingly Monday to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the Statehouse.

The 37-3 vote propelled the state towards a landmark moment that many hope could come within days: the lowering of the flag that has flown outside the seat of state power here for more than five decades, even as it became a symbol of the segregated South and white supremacy.

The measure, sought by the state’s Republican governor, Nikki R. Haley, was voted on just weeks after the massacre of nine people at a historic and predominantly black church in Charleston. After a final vote in the Senate, widely viewed as a formality, the legislation will go before the House of Representatives, where the outcome is less certain. Debate on the measure is expected to begin this week.

The Senate vote, conducted during a dramatic roll call about 4pm Monday, was among the clearest signals of a resounding and abrupt shift in South Carolina, a place where less than a month ago, removing the battle flag from its spot near the Statehouse appeared politically impossible.

“I’d implore us to pass this bill today in the pursuit of peace and mutual upbuilding,” said Sen. George E. Campsen III, Republican-Charleston, who urged fellow senators to “not engage in some of the battles that we saw raging all over the country.”

Throughout the debate, senators differed over whether the flag symbolised oppression and racism, or whether it represented the region’s history and heritage.

“We all have somewhere between slightly different and very different perspectives on the Confederate flag,” Sen. Joel Lourie, Democrat-Columbia, said during the debate. “This fact is undeniable: The alleged killer of the Charleston nine used that flag as a symbol of hatred and racism and bigotry. He was not the first; he will not be the last. I am very respectful to those who would argue that this flag is part of our state’s history, and that, too, is undeniable. But it’s also a flag that brings back horrible memories of slavery.”

The killings at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church revived an issue that fractured the Legislature about 15 years ago but this week yielded, at least in the Senate, quick action against a symbol revered by many white Southerners but regarded by many blacks as an offensive vestige of segregation and oppression.

 

Aggressive defence

 

Some members of the Senate, in which Emanuel’s senior pastor, the Rev. Clementi C. Pinckney, served at the time of his death, said the events of recent weeks had prompted reflection about the meaning of the flag and its prominence in a state where about 28 per cent of the population is black.

But supporters of the measure were unable to persuade three members of the Senate, all of them Republicans: the majority leader, Harvey S. Peeler Jr.; Lee Bright; and Daniel B. Verdin III.

“To remove the flag from the Statehouse grounds and thinking it would change history would be like removing a tattoo from the corpse of a loved one and thinking that would change the loved one’s obituary,” Peeler said. “That won’t change history. Moving the flag won’t change history.”

Bright also mounted an aggressive defence of the flag and sounded similar notes to Peeler.

“Removing this flag from out front is not going to do anything to change this nation,” said Bright, who occasionally raised a book he said contained the names of the Confederate war dead. “All we’re going to do is disrespect these 20,000-plus men, black and white, who fought to defend your state.”

In Monday’s session, lawmakers defeated three amendments designed to undermine the measure, including a proposal for a statewide referendum about the battle flag and another that called for it to fly outside the Statehouse each year on Confederate Memorial Day.

The limited resistance in the Senate amplified the calls for the House to move quickly on the measure. But House leaders have been reluctant to speak out about their plans for the flag debate, and talk has coursed through the Statehouse that the measure could be sent through the committee process, a decision that would prolong the debate.

 

Hurdles

 

Vincent A. Sheheen, a Democratic senator who last year unsuccessfully challenged Haley for the governorship, predicted that the Senate’s vote, well beyond the two-thirds majority required to alter the flag, would help supporters to “clear the hurdles that we need to in the House”.

“We did our job,” said Sheheen, lead sponsor of the legislation. “I do think that it sends a very loud and clear message to the House of Representatives that there is support, momentum, consensus.”

In a statement, Haley said the Senate “rose to this historic occasion, with a large majority of members from both parties coming together in the spirit of unity and healing that is binding our state back together and moving us in the right direction.” Haley, a former member of the House, added that she wanted the lower chamber to “act swiftly and follow the Senate’s lead.”

If the measure survives a House vote, the battle flag would come down within 24 hours of Haley signing it into law.

Although the debate inside the Statehouse was sporadically contentious, there were also indications of a subdued day brought on by a tragedy. Near the governor’s office, for instance, a multi-denominational group of Christians sang “Amazing Grace” before the Senate convened.

Outside the Statehouse, protesters milled about on a humid day in Columbia and, before a large audience of television cameras and police officers, pressed lawmakers one way or the other.