A special armored van was taking the flag to a state museum, where it eventually will be housed in a multimillion-dollar shrine lawmakers promised to build as part of a compromise to get the bill ordering the flag's removal through the state Legislature.
As South Carolina Governor Nikki looked on, two troopers rolled the flag and tied it up with a string. They handed it to a black trooper who brought it to the Statehouse steps. When the trooper handed it to a state archivist, the governor clapped.
Patsy Eaddy, a black woman, said there was a "sense of embarrassment" of seeing the flag still flying after all these years. She attended the ceremony to see the important milestone in the civil rights movement.
People who supported removing the flag chanted "take it down" before the ceremony and vastly outnumbered those who were upset about the move.
Still, some were not celebrating. Clad in a black dress similar to those worn in the 1800s, Cindy Lampley clutched a poster showing photos of ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. Lampley said she is a historical reenactor who fears removing symbols like the flag dishonors her relatives who fought for the Southern cause.
"I think it's important that we remember them," Lampley said. "It's a sad day for me, that my ancestors will no longer see their flag flying next to their memorial."
President Barack Obama tweeted minutes after the flag was down, saying it was "a sign of good will and healing and a meaningful step towards a better future." Obama delivered a eulogy at the funeral for state Senator Clementa Pinckney, who was also pastor of the church where the killings took place.
The flag came down 23 days after the massacre of state Senator Clementa Pinckney and eight others inside Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Haley signed the bill with 13 pens. Nine of them went to the families of the victims."People say he was wrapped in hate, that he was a hateful person," said Democratic Representative Justin Bamberg. "Well, his hate was wrapped in the cloak of that Confederate flag. That is why that flag is coming down."
The FBI said Friday that Roof should not been allowed to purchase the weapon used in the attack. FBI Director James Comey outlined a series of missed opportunities and incomplete paperwork that allowed the transaction to take place.
The problem stemmed from an arrest of Dylann Roof in South Carolina weeks before the shooting in which police say he admitted to possessing illegal drugs.
"It's just like the conclusion of the war itself," said Rep. Mike Pitts, who submitted several amendments to fly a different flag on the pole that all failed. "The issue was settled, and the nation came back together to move on."
States across the U.S are moving on without their Confederate symbols. The rebel flag is gone from the Alabama Capitol, and the U.S. House of Representatives voted that it can no longer fly at historic federal cemeteries in the Deep South. A city council committee in Memphis wants to move a statue and the remains of Civil War hero and slave trader Nathan Bedford Forrest out of a prominent park, and officials in Alaska want a new moniker for a U.S. Census district named for a Confederate general.Earlier Friday on NBC's "Today" show, she said: "No one should ever drive by the Statehouse and feel pain. No one should ever drive by the Statehouse and feel like they don't belong."