Why Governor Haley Took Down the Confederate Flag

Removing the Divisive Symbol Was About Business, Not Ideals

The most striking aspect of the Bamberg, South Carolina, grade school class photo (circa 1980) is not the nine black youngsters scattered among the 23 white pupils. Bamberg schools had been integrated under a court order roughly a decade earlier. Rather, the real eye-catcher in the shot is the girl with the flowing black hair and skin only slightly lighter than that of some of her African-American classmates. A few years earlier, at age 4, this little girl and her sister had also stood out among the contestants at the …