Alabama governor orders Confederate flags down at Capitol

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley ordered Confederate flags to be taken down Wednesday from the grounds of the state Capitol, the latest move to banish the divisive banner from state capitols, store shelves, license plates and monuments one week after nine black church members in Charleston, South Carolina, were killed by a white gunman in what authorities say was a racially motived attack.

Workers took down the Confederate flag on the confederate memorial on the state Capitol grounds around 8:20 a.m. Wednesday, according to Birmingham News.

Soon afterward, Bentley came out of the Capitol and confirmed that he ordered the flag to be taken down. The governor said his decision was motivated in part by last week’s massacre in South Carolina.

On Monday, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley urged the state's GOP-led House and Senate to take action to remove the flag from the statehouse grounds. 

For two decades, Alabama has displayed four different Confederate flags around a large monument to Confederate soldiers outside the Alabama Capitol. On Wednesday, they all came down.

“This is the right thing to do. We are facing some major issues in this state regarding the budget and other matters that we need to deal with,” Bentley told the Birmingham News. “This had the potential to become a major distraction as we go forward. I have taxes to raise, we have work to do. And it was my decision that the flag needed to come down.”

Bentley spokeswoman Jennifer Ardis told The Associated Press there was no law prohibiting the removal of the flags by executive order.

Dylann Storm Roof, a 21-year-old white man, faces murder and gun charges in the deadly attack at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Roof sat with the Bible study group for about an hour last Wednesday night before allegedly opening fire.

Roof had told a friend he would do something “for the white race” and posed in photos displaying Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press