South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley pledged to sign legislation permanently removing the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds, following an emotional debate spurred by the massacre of nine black churchgoers last month.
Haley said she would sign the bill into law at 4pm (local time) and Charleston's Post and Courier newspaper said the flag would be removed at 10am on Friday. It will be taken to the "relic room" of a military museum in Columbia, the state capital.
The flag nicknamed the "Stars and Bars," carried by Confederates in the 1861-1865 Civil War, is seen as a symbol of racism and slavery by many but of Southern heritage by others. It has flown at the state capitol for more than 50 years.
South Carolina's House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the bill just after 1am on Thursday after a debate that began on Wednesday. The Senate passed it earlier in the week, also by a huge margin.
In a statement early on Thursday, Haley said: "It is a new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of, a day that truly brings us all together as we continue to heal, as one people and one state."
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) welcomed the move, calling the flag "one of the longest standing symbols of hatred and exclusion."
NAACP President Cornell William Brooks in a statement applauded Haley "for her leadership and moral courage by changing her position and supporting the flag removal" after the June 17 slayings at a landmark Charleston church with a predominantly black congregation. A white man, Dylann Roof, is accused in the murders.
The slayings prompted widespread repudiation of the flag.
The 124-member House approved the bill 94-20 after 13 hours of sometimes rancorous debate and stiff opposition from some conservative white Republicans.
Opponents in the Republican-dominated chamber launched 60 amendments seeking to soften the impact of the flag's removal, such as hoisting a different Civil War-era battle flag.
As patience wore thin, a string of Democrats, both black and white, and some white Republicans, begged the House not to drag its feet any longer, warning that amending the bill could hold up passage for weeks.
"Are we going to tarry in the foolishness of 150 years ago?" said Cezar McNight, a Democrat Representative who is black.
Republican Representative Jenny Anderson Horne, who is white, turned her frustration on fellow party members. She invoked the memory of the nine victims, including their pastor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a widely admired state senator.
"If you cannot be moved by the suffering of the people of Charleston, you don't have a heart," she said, breaking down in tears. "If we amend this bill ... we are saying that we do not care that someone used this symbol to slay ... innocent people who were worshipping their God."
As amendment after amendment failed, flag defenders grew exasperated, accusing opponents of lacking respect for their Southern heritage and blasting fellow Republicans, including Haley, for rushing them into a vote.
Representative Chris Corley, a white Republican, proposed substituting a white flag for the banner, accusing his party of surrendering to media pressure.
Several speakers denied the flag's association with slavery saying it had been "hijacked" or "abducted" by hate groups. They repeatedly referred to respect for ancestors who fought for the state and the Confederacy.
"I have wept over this thing. I have bathed this thing in prayer," said Eric Bedingfield, a white Republican flag defender. "You can't erase history."
