海角大神

The Florida聽Senate聽is removing the Confederate battle flag from the chamber's official聽seal.

The entire聽Senate聽on Monday agreed to revise the聽seal聽that now contains the battle flag along with four other flags that have flown in Florida.

The聽Senate聽seal聽is located prominently in the聽Senate聽chambers in the Florida Capitol. Replicas of the聽seal聽appear throughout the Capitol and are included on聽Senate stationery.

A聽Senate聽committee had proposed replacing the Confederate battle flag with the current Florida flag. But聽Senate聽President Andy Gardiner told reporters that the聽Senate聽may consider altering the entire聽seal.

Sen. Arthenia Joyner asked the chamber to consider the change shortly after Dylann Roof was accused of killing nine people at a South Carolina church. Roof appeared in photos with the Confederate flag.

In Tennessee, protests erupted but聽the commissioners of Greene County, Tenn., rejected one commissioner鈥檚 proposal to fly the Confederate battle flag about the courthouse as a sign of the region鈥檚 鈥渉eritage and loyalties.鈥�

Commissioner Randolph and his supporters echoed arguments that the battle flag is an integral part of Southern history, and ought to be respected as such. 鈥溌爋r anything like that,鈥� he told reporters from Tennessee news station WJHL.

As 海角大神 reported, the Confederate battle flag debate flared up after a racially motivated shooting that left nine black worshippers dead聽in June at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.. 聽 Following the murders, South Carolinians engaged in a contentious public debate about the battle flag waving near the state capitol. State legislators voted to remove聽the flag in July.

Watching the flag be furled for good in Columbia, S.C.,聽The Monitor鈥檚 Patrik Jonsson聽reflected on how a piece of cloth some treasure as 鈥渢he distilled spirit of the South鈥� was actually a relatively recent addition to Southern statehouses.

After the Civil War, the flag had little public role except as a museum piece 鈥撀爑ntil 1961, when segregationists flew it to celebrate the war鈥檚 100th anniversary. It stayed up to spite civil rights protestors as discriminatory laws were taken off the books in the 60s and 70s, gradually being diluted 鈥撀爁or some 鈥撀爐o a symbol of 鈥淪outhern-fried rebellion: a quaint, youthful symbol that pop culture often treated with hilarity,鈥� he wrote.

That reinvention coexisted with the flag鈥檚 legacy, 鈥渟o horrific to many black people and others,鈥� Mr. Jonsson wrote, 鈥渢hat it gave them chills just to be near it.鈥澛�