senator kay patterson obviously, is from darlington county, where i am from now, and whenever i called him, i said i want to thank you for all you have done over the years, the fights that you have had, the struggles you have had, and to see where we are now. i don't know that we can address this issue without having senator patterson's voice somewhere around us. he has graced us with his presence today. there was discussion as to where he would sit, and one of the voices told me anywhere he wants. i just want to end up taking a moment for -- i guess in 1999 2000, the years earlier, senator patterson, you all know his history, he was a marine and you end up -- remember what happened. this interview for, when we started talking about issues was to us, i never forget the speech similar to the one senator pinckney date on the 10th amendments, and senator patterson said "put it in your heart. i also remember him talking about the fact that whenever he served in our military, those individuals they were bringing back in caskets and body bags, he said, no one looked at them for their race, t

i joined this battle started by senator kay patterson almost 50 years ago.i joined him much later in it. i wrote an op-ed piece about the confederate battle flag, at that time the tennessee flag, flying on top of the statehouse and in the chambers of the house and senate and i was rewarded with police protection for almost five years. so this is a real relief for me. and i hope it is a sign that south carolina is now going to begin to come together as one state, a part of one nation, all pledging allegiance to one flag -- that's what i felt this morning. i hope i am proved to be right. >> well, and i want to read what you actually tweeted out because it was almost verbatim to what you just said. you said "i look forward to the citizens of south carolina being under one flag, the american flag." but you and i both know, as many people watching know, one action does not necessarily mean the panacea to all that ails and i think many of us looked back to the election of a black president as a massive turning point in race relations in this country. where do you

i was recruited into this fight by former senator kay patterson who fought a lonely battle for a longut of the chambers and off of the dome. now some 15 years ago, when the flag came out of the chambers and off the dome they decided to place it there in front of the building. today, after 54 years, they're now going to put the flag where it should be in the confederate relic room housed in the -- in a state museum and all of us who want to research the history, who want to see what the memorabilia of this is all about, we'll go to the museum to accomplish that. i'm so proud of what the government has done, what the legislature has done in order to bring our state together. we need to be one people one state, one nation. >> congressman kleinberg, stand by for me. the ceremony appears to be getting under way, and they're moving into position again. take it down and it appears they're ready to do it with the state house in the background. ♪ >>> and there goes the confederate battle flag. [ cheers and applause ] >> after more than 50 years, more than five decades of flying here on the sta