Led by Charleston Mayor, Historic March Targets Confederate Flag Over South Carolina Statehouse
Riley Leads "Get in Step" Marchers from Charleston to Columbia

April 17, 2000

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. ended a nearly 120-mile march from Charleston to South Carolina’s State Capitol on April 6 with yet another appeal to his State legislators to remove the Confederate battle flag from the dome of the Statehouse. Speaking to a crowd of over 2,000 who assembled in Columbia for the conclusion of the “Get in Step” march, Riley said the legislators’ refusal to take down the flag was a sign that they were out of step with South Carolina’s people.

Riley estimated that he took about 275,000 steps during the five days of the event and that all the marchers, as a group, took about 3.8 million – one for every citizen of South Carolina, he said. He was joined by Columbia Mayor Bob Coble and several hundred other marchers at the April 2 start in Charleston and by an estimated 1,000 at the march’s conclusion in Columbia. With the exception of the mid-afternoon start on the first day, the marchers were on the road at 7:00 each morning and were moving until about 6:30 p.m.

In September, Riley and Coble, as mayors of South Carolina’s two largest cities, formed S.C. United, a nonprofit organization designed to muster grassroots support for removal of the flag. S.C. United’s website allows users to petition members of the legislature online, send e-mail to legislators, and send letters to editors. Site users also are invited to provide financial support for the organization, and many have done so: More than $80,000 in donations and pledges were received for the march in the week prior to its start, and it is expected that all costs associated with the event will be covered by S.C. United.

As a group, Get in Step marchers and S.C. United supporters represent a cross-section of South Carolina’s government, business, community and religious leadership. Mayors include Rock Hill’s Doug Echols, Florence’s Frank Willis, Holly Hill’s David Whitehead, Hollywood’s Herbert Gadsden, Orangeburg’s Martin Cheatham, and Sumter’s Steve Creech. State officials include the Secretary of Commerce, Superintendent of Education, Secretary of Labor, Comptroller General, Health Department Chair, and Treasurer. Former Governor John West and former Lieutenant Governor Nick Theodore are included, as are many members of the South Carolina legislature. The education community is represented by the University of South Carolina President and Chairman of the Board, the Clemson University President, the College of Charleston President, the President of the Medical University of South Carolina, the South Carolina Teacher of the Year, the Charleston County Teacher of the Year, and by USC’s and Clemson’s football and basketball coaches.

Among writers and artists are best-selling author Pat Conroy and National Book Award winner Edward Ball, and Nobel Prize winner Robert Furchtgott. From the business community: Bank of America Chair Hugh McColl. From the entertainment community: Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish. From the faith community: Bishop of Charleston Robert Baker. The group also includes leaders of the State’s AFL-CIO, Chamber of Commerce, and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP boycott of South Carolina, in protest of the flag’s presence on the Statehouse dome, has produced losses of convention and tourism income for the State since it was enacted in January and was one of the many factors motivating the march across the State.

“Every religious denomination, every business organization, every civil rights organization, college boards of trustees and athletic directors, and average citizens, rank and file, have said: remove the Confederate battle flag,” Riley told the crowd assembled on the south steps of the Capitol. “And our legislature, with only a few more days left in our legislative session, hasn’t even begun to debate the bill. They are out of step with the people of South Carolina.”

Former South Carolina Governor David Beasley, a Republican who had attempted to remove the flag from the Statehouse a few years earlier and who marched with Riley into Columbia, said the march represented an opportunity for the State to show it can protect its heritage in a way that is respectful to all involved.

News media reports during the week of the march noted that Mayor Riley had received a death threat in connection with his leadership of Get in Step. Referring to the individuals sending the “hateful e-mails and the threat,” Riley said the Confederate flag, to them, “clearly is not a flag of heritage.” In a threatening letter he had received a week prior to the march, Riley explained, the author promised to put him in his gun sights. “That is not his heritage,” said Riley. “That is his hate.”

Both Mayor Riley and South Carolina’s Governor Jim Hodges, who has been working with the legislators on a compromise to resolve the flag issue, addressed the crowd on the Capitol steps, and both were introduced by Mayor Coble. In introducing Riley, Coble said he had never been more proud of his friend. “The last five days,” said Coble, “have shown his conviction, his courage, and his unending devotion to his beloved South Carolina.”

A Week Following March, Legislative Compromise Advances

When the Get in Step march was underway, the current legislative session had little time remaining in which a bill to remove the flag could be considered. With flag supporters vowing to block any compromise legislation that was offered, many thought it likely that the session would end with no action being taken.

Within a week of the march, however, the situation had changed.. On April 12, the State Senate voted 36-7 to remove the flag from the dome and to fly a smaller version of it next to a prominent Confederate Civil War memorial which stands in front of the Statehouse. Because a similar bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Speaker David Wilkins, many Senators are reported to be optimistic about House passage, and Governor Hodges is again urging the House to act. Following the Senate vote, many legislators, both pro-flag and anti-flag, said that while they are not pleased with the compromise, they recognize that it is in the best interests of the State to end the dispute at this time.

On the following day, a final technical vote in the Senate affirmed the passage of the compromise bill to move the flag, and House Speaker Wilkins said the Senate bill contained the only plan he would allow to pass when it is taken up by the House within the next couple of weeks. But although most black members of the Senate voted for the plan, most black House members are reported to be opposed, and the NAACP announced that if the flag was moved to the front of the Statehouse, rather than removed from the grounds altogether, its boycott would continue.

Mayor Riley commended the Senate for its action and urged the House to move quickly to support the compromise. “The overwhelming vote of the South Carolina State Senate to move the Confederate battle flag from atop the State capital is long overdue and is welcome news to the citizens of South Carolina,” Riley said. “I believe it shows that the South Carolina legislature is ready to accept the will of the broad majority of our State’s citizens. As demonstrated by thousands of marchers last week, South Carolinians of every race and political affiliation clearly want this issue resolved once and for all.”

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