Days after Dylann Roof attacked a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., where police say he shot and killed nine people because of the color of their skin, activists and politicians nationwide turned their anger toward the Confederate flag that flies on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse in Columbia.
The flag, emblematic of slavery to most but a symbol of states' rights and Southern pride to others, has become something of a political football in the wake of the shootings. President Obama and several candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 called for the "stars and bars" to be taken down.