COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Jim Hodges started a countdown to July 1, when the Confederate flag will be lowered from atop the state Capitol.
"This debate is over," Hodges said after signing legislation Tuesday that removes the flag from above the Statehouse along with Confederate banners now hanging in the House and Senate chambers."Let us move forward together and united."
That may take time.
Though the flags will come down -- they will be moved to a museum -- a square battle flag will rise on a 30-foot bronze pole at the Confederate Soldier Monument outside the Statehouse.
That's still too prominent for critics who contend the flag is a racist symbol.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People vows to continue and expand the tourism boycott of the state that it began Jan. 1. The civil rights group says the monument, where the flag will fly, is still too prominent.
"In our opinion there really is no resolution," state NAACP president James Gallman said after watching the bill signing ceremony.
South Carolina alone flies the flag above the Statehouse, where it was raised in 1962 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War. Supporters say it represents the state's heritage. Opponents say it was put up in symbolic defiance of the civil rights movement.
Hodges noted struggles of slaves and Confederates alike in his speech as he signed the bill.
"Today, we bring this debate to an honorable end. Today, the descendants of slaves and the descendants of Confederate soldiers join together in the spirit of mutual respect," Hodges said in one of the most politically important speeches of his first term in office.
Sen. Darrell Jackson, a black Democrat, tried to support the NAACP's position. In the end, he parted with the NAACP and gathered with about 20 lawmakers in Hodges' office for the signing. He said he was satisfied that he delivered on a promise to his sons to remove the flag. "I can say to them, with the help of my colleagues in the General Assembly, 'We did it.' And now, I think it's time for the healing to begin."
The bill went to Hodges' desk after Republican House Speaker David Wilkins and Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler, who presides over the Senate, met Tuesday morning to put their signatures on the bill. "It's big. It's historical and it felt good," Wilkins said.
Hodges was elected in 1998 to a four-year-term with the help of Confederate flag supporters who said he violated a promise that he wouldn't take a leadership role in the flag debate.
The political importance of the speech was evident as Hodges practiced his remarks earlier in the day with a television camera accidentally piping the signal into the Statehouse press room. At one point, Hodges said to advisers that he wanted to "distance myself as much from the debate" as he could. "I know I can't do it entirely," he said.
Spokesman Morton Brilliant said Hodges was trying to emphasize that he did not want to be seen as the center of the solution.
On the Net:
South Carolina General Assembly: www.leginfo.state.sc.us/
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: www.naacp.org
South Carolina Heritage Coalition: www.kudzumedia.com/schc.htm