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Politicians and business leaders have scrambled in the past week to distance themselves from the Confederate flag, an emblem with a legacy that now includes the shooting of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) had the Confederate flag removed from his state’s Capitol grounds, and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) called for her state to do the same. Meanwhile, Virginia’s governor announced he would pursue steps to pull the flag from state-sponsored license plates. Companies including Walmart, eBay and Amazon quickly banned its sale.
Public opinion on the flag has shifted almost as quickly, a new HuffPost/YouGov pollfinds. Just 24 percent of Americans now support displaying the Confederate flag in public places, down 12 points from just three months ago. Only 19 percent say Southern states should fly the Confederate flag on the grounds of a state Capitol or other government building.
Even among self-described Southerners, just 35 percent of respondents support flying the flag publicly and 29 percent think it should remain on Capitol grounds.
Many are also rethinking the symbolism of the image. In March, Americans said by a 10-point margin that the flag represented Southern pride more than racism. Now, by a 6-point margin, they see it primarily as a symbol of racism.
“[I]t has become clear that the flag does in fact mean different things to different people in our state,” Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) said in a statement Tuesday.
