MOSCOW (Sputnik) – More than 380,000 people have signed an online petition to bring down the Confederate flag waving on the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol following the shooting at an African American church in Charleston.
"The Confederate flag is not a symbol of southern pride but rather a symbol of rebellion and racism. On the heels of the brutal killing of nine Black people in a South Carolina church by a racist terrorist, it's time to put that symbol of rebellion and racism behind us and move toward healing and a better United States of America," MoveOn.org activist group said on the petition page.
The Confederate States of America was an unrecognized confederation of slave states from the southern region of the United States, formed in 1861 in opposition to Abraham Lincoln’s presidential platform that was against the expansion of slavery.
Dylann Roof, the white 21-year-old who carried out the Wednesday shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopalian Church in Charleston was pictured in various photos with the Confederate flag. The car that he was arrested in after the shooting bore the Confederate icon.
A rally was held on Saturday under the Confederate flag in front of the state capitol building in Columbia, South Carolina, with the participants demanding that it be taken down in response to the Charleston shooting.
MoveOn.org said on its Facebook page on Saturday that 2,400 people had signed up for the demonstration.
Roof was charged with 9 counts of murder and possession of a firearm on Friday.
