'Take it down': Protesters demand removal of Confederate flag after Charleston shootings

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Protesters close their eyes in silent prayer as they stand on the South Carolina Statehouse steps during a rally to take down the Confederate flag in Columbia, S.C. Photo: AP

Published: 10:45pm, 21 Jun 2015Updated: 9:45pm, 22 Jun 2015

Several thousand protesters gathered under the controversial Confederate flag at South Carolina's state legislature in Columbia, demanding that it be taken down in response to the Charleston church massacre.

Waving placards, chanting "take it down" and singing We Shall Overcome, the youthful crowd, black and white, condemned the American civil war saltire as a symbol of lingering racist sentiment in the US South.

A protester calls for the flag's removal. Photo: EPA

"We can no longer afford to let that flag stand there" and be a beacon for those who harbour "bad opinions", said one of the speakers, 95-year-old lawyer and activist Sarah Leverette, prompting loud cheers.

Organisers called the event a "warm-up" for what they hope will be an even bigger anti-flag protest, also in front of the State House, on the Fourth of July holiday.

Online, more than 370,000 people as of late Saturday had put their name to a petition launched by the left-leaning MoveOn.org activist group, calling for the flag to go.

A Confederate flag flies outside the South Carolina State House in Columbia, South Carolina. Photo: Reuters

The flag became a flashpoint once again after Dylann Roof, 21, allegedly walked into a Bible-study class at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and shot dead nine black people.