COLUMBIA (CNN) — The Confederate flag will still flap nearby when the Rev. Clementa Pinckney’s body goes on public view Wednesday afternoon in the South Carolina State House.
A week after the killing of the African-American pastor and state senator by a man who had posed in photos with the flag as a symbol of white supremacy, the deceased’s legislative colleagues are still grappling with whether to take it down.
Since police say Dylann Roof, 21, gunned down Pinckney and eight other worshippers during a Bible study June 17 at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, hundreds have demonstrated at the Capitol in Columbia to have the Confederate flag removed immediately.
On Tuesday, lawmakers took a step in that direction.
Only 10 members of the South Carolina House of Representatives voted against a motion to open up a debate to remove the flag from a war memorial located yards from the Capitol’s doors.
A law protecting it and other Civil War symbols requires a two-thirds supermajority vote in each chamber of the Legislature to take it down. But critics say it could go much faster if lawmakers would just strike down that law with a simple majority vote.
Meanwhile in Alabama, all four Confederate flags at the Confederate memorial on the state Capitol grounds in Montgomery were removed Wednesday morning on the order of Gov. Robert Bentley, according to press secretary Yasamie August. The governor said he didn’t want the flags to become a distraction to state legislative matters. August said the move will be permanent.
In Charleston, with fears that outside protesters could descend there, the City Council acted quickly, unanimously passing a special resolution to establish guidelines for demonstrations.
Demonstrators will have to stay at least 300 feet away from any church, synagogue, funeral home, cemetery or family home, said council member Kathleen Wilson.
She and others on the council have heard that far-right protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas may be among those visiting town.
Pinckney answered the call to preach nearly 30 years ago, at the age of 13, according to a biography on the church’s website. He was first appointed a pastor when he was 18. He graduated magna cum laude from Allen University and was president of the student body at the Columbia school.
Ebony magazine even featured him as one of its “Top College Students in America.”
In 1996, at 23, he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives, the youngest black person ever to win such a seat.
Four years later, voters elevated him to the state Senate. He recently advocated for legislation to make police wear body cameras, believing it would protect lives.
Pinckney was 41 when he was killed.
His body will be on public view from 1 to 5 p.m. ET Wednesday in the State House Rotunda. His funeral will be at 11 a.m. ET Friday in Charleston.
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