Mullins McLeod ready to take Confederate Flag down
Posted by Greg Hambrick
Thu, Nov 19, 2009
As the topper on a job proposal, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mullins McLeod said Thursday that the state needs to bring down the controversial Confederate Flag on the 
Statehouse grounds and put it in a museum where it belongs. The whole debate sends the wrong message about South Carolina, McLeod said.
"The Confederate Flag debate continues to hold our state back," he said. " We are not going to compete in a 21st Century economy by prolonging 19th Century arguments."
The flag debate has been on the back-burner for nearly a decade after the flag was removed from the Statehouse dome and placed in front of the building. Some have argued that the move, which was pitched as a compromise, placed the flag in an even more prominent spot. The flag was first placed on the Statehouse in 1963 in the midst of the Civil Rights movement.
But the flag resolution is a novel accessory for a larger jobs-creation pitch. McLeod is also calling for an impartial analysis of state jobs data, middle-class tax relief, improved training resources (particularly in rural areas), and a focus on green jobs.
© Copyright 2009, Charleston City Paper
