Rebel Flag: An MLK Day Irony

With signs reading "Your heritage is my slavery," thousands of people marched Monday to protest the Confederate flag that flies above the Statehouse and demand a permanent state holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Demonstrators participated "in the spirit of Doctor King," South Carolina NAACP President James Gallman said Monday. "We're not here to call names or make threats today, but to call for fairness and understanding," he said.

King's son, Martin Luther King III, opened the day with a prayer breakfast at the University of South Carolina, CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.

"This is the kind of thing we need to be doing on Martin Luther King's birthday," King said. "The flag is a terrible symbol that brings a lot of negative energy. And while we believe the flag has an appropriate place, it just does not belong on top of the Capitol because it is not a sign of unification."

Demonstrators gathered at a downtown church for a service before they marched to the Statehouse six blocks away, singing "the flag is coming down" and waving American flags. The marchers were led with a banner declaring "A March and Rally for the Removal of the Confederate Flag."

People seeking the flag's removal say it is a bitter reminder of slavery and racism. Flag supporters say it represents the heritage of those who fought and died for a cause they believed in.

Officials from the Public Safety Department said Monday that as many as 46,000 people took part in the march. Columbia police earlier had said that at least 10,000 people were taking part in the first stages of the event. The crowd filled the Statehouse grounds and spilled onto several nearby streets.

More than 6,000 marched a week ago in the South Carolina Heritage 2000 rally to show support for keeping the flag atop the Statehouse. Those who support the foremost symbol of the Old South maintain the view that it stands for state's rights.

Take South Carolina State Senator Glenn McConnell, for example. The descendant of Confederate veterans told CBS News Early Show Anchor Bryant Gumbel that the flag flies over Charleston to remind Americans of the struggle for state's rights.

"It means southern heritage and it's the battle emblem of the people who answered the call to their government and laid their lives on the line," McConnell said.

But for those to whom the Confederacy represented slavery -- and the racial hatred it fomented -- McConnell's view is especially ironic on Martin Luther King Day.

"It's essential that this issue be resolved," said Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, who was attending the march. "It is creating division and ... casting South Carolina in a very unfavorable light nationally."

South Carolina remains the only state in the nation to fly the Confederate flag atop its capitol. The debate over the flag has crept into the presidential campaign. n Sunday talk shows, GOP presidential hopefuls George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain and Steve Forbes said that South Carolina voters should determine whether the flag continues to fly atop the state capitol.

Some Republicans took a stronger stand than did those in the presidential race, reports CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers. Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci, for example, said the flag should be taken down.

"I don't think it should be flown. That's my view." he said Monday from Boston.

Democratic contenders Al Gore and Bill Bradley immediately hammered their GOP rivals, saying unequivocally that the flag should come down.