A special armored van will take the flag to the Confederate relic room.
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After more than 50 years, the Confederate flag no longer flies outside the South Carolina state house. Thousands gathered to watch the ceremony Friday morning.
The Confederate flag has been removed from a flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse, where it has had a presence for 54 years.
The rebel banner was taken down Friday morning by a Highway Patrol honor guard in a ceremony attended by thousands who cheered at the removal, many yelling "USA, USA" and "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye!"
President Barack Obama said Friday taking down the Confederate flag is "a sign of good will and healing and a meaningful step toward a better future." Obama posted his reaction on Twitter, minutes after the flag was removed.
Archaeologists have found nearly 10,000 Native American artifacts at two sites in Camden, New Jersey.
South Carolina's leaders first flew the battle flag over the Statehouse dome in 1961 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Civil War. It remained there to represent official opposition to the civil rights movement.
Decades later, mass protests against the flag by those who said it was a symbol of racism and white supremacy led to a compromise in 2000 with lawmakers who insisted that it symbolized Southern heritage and states' rights. The two sides came to an agreement to move the flag from the dome to a 30-foot pole next to a Confederate monument in front of the Statehouse.
Thousands of people showed up for the transfer. Flag supporters shouted, "Off the dome and in your face!" at protesters who wanted the flag gone, a line of police in special gear separating the two sides. A pair of Citadel cadets, one white and one black, lowered the flag from the dome as a dozen Confederate re-enactors marched to the brand new flagpole and raised the rebel banner.
Republican Gov. Nikki Haley didn't show any emotion as the Confederate flag was lowered and removed until someone in the crowd yelled "Thank you, governor!"
Then, as the flag was taken down. Haley nodded in the direction of the cheering and smiled.
The flag was taken down by a state Highway Patrol honor guard. One trooper took the flag down, and then he and another trooper rolled it up. They handed it a third trooper. Then, when the flag was given to an archivist, Haley clapped.
Haley, who appeared on NBC's "Today" show shortly before the flag was scheduled to be removed, said it was an important step forward for her state but she wants the act to be more than a one-day event for the country.
"We can continue to move forward in a country in a way that unifies people and that shows what real love looks like. That's what I want people to get out of this," she said.
"I don't want this to go away quickly," Haley added. "I want people to remember what today feels like and know that anything is possible with us."
The flag came down 23 days after the massacre of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney and eight others inside Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Haley signed the bill with 13 pens. Nine of them went to the families of the victims.
Authorities say they believe the killings were racially motivated. By posing with the Confederate flag before the shootings, suspect Dylann Storm Roof, who has not yet entered a plea to nine counts of murder, convinced some that the flag's reputation for white supremacy and racial oppression had trumped its symbolism of Southern heritage and ancestral pride.
AP Photo/David Goldman
People join hands against the backdrop of an American flag as thousands of marchers meet in the middle of Charleston's main bridge in a show of unity after nine black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study, Sunday, June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Pallbearers release doves over the casket of Ethel Lance during her burial service, June 25, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guards stand over Sen. Clementa Pinckneyu2019s body as members of the public file past in the Statehouse, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, in Columbia, S.C.
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Doris Simmons, of Charleston, S.C. stands across the street from Emanuel AME Church, the scene of last week's mass shooting, as the sun rises June 26, 2015, in Charleston.
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People join hands against the backdrop of an American flag as thousands of marchers meet in the middle of Charleston's main bridge in a show of unity after nine black church parishioners were gunned down during a Bible study, June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Parishioners pray at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church June 21, 2015, in Charleston, S.C., four days after a mass shooting that claimed the lives of it's pastor and eight others.
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Najee Washington holds a photo of her grandmother Ethel Lance, one of the nine people killed in Wednesday's shooting at Emanuel AME Church, June 19, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Parishioners sing four days after a mass shooting that claimed nine lives at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Church. Elders at the Charleston, South Carolina, church decided to hold the regularly scheduled Sunday school and worship service as they continue to grieve.
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FBI forensic experts work the parking lot behind the AME Emanuel Church, June 19, 2015 in Charleston, S.C.
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Olina Ortega, left, and Austin Gibbs light candles at a memorial in front of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., June 18, 2015.
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Dylann Roof, 21, appears via video before a judge in Charleston, S.C, on June 19, 2015. Roof made his first court appearance Friday, with the victims' relatives making tearful statements.
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From left, Patricia Hamock, of Decatur, Ga., Cynthia Carmichael, of Decatur, Ga., and Angela Dixon, of Marietta, Ga., sing together at the interfaith prayer vigil at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday, June 18, 2015. The vigil is to mourn the killing of nine people from Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. (AP Photo/Rebecca Breyer)
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People of all faiths come together at the interfaith prayer vigil at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday, June 18, 2015. The vigil is to mourn the killing of nine people from Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. (AP Photo/Rebecca Breyer)
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Olina Ortega, left, and Austin Gibbs light candles at a memorial in front of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., June 18, 2015.
The victims include Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Rev. Depayne Middleton Doctor, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Myra Thompson, Tywanza Sanders.
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President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, pauses while speaking in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 18, 2015, on the church shooting in Charleston, S.C., prior to his departure to Los Angeles.
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Charleston police Lt. S. Siprko removes flowers from the backseat of a patrol car, Thursday, June 18, 2015 to a makeshift memorial in front of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. The alleged shooter, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, spent nearly an hour inside the church Wednesday night before killing six women and three men, then tried to outrun an all-night manhunt before a citizen in the next state spotted his car and tipped police, Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said.
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The great-grandnephews of Susie Jackson, who died in Wednesday's shooting, play hide and seek during a family gathering outside Jackson's home June 18, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof sits inside a police car as he is escorted from the Sheby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., June 18, 2015.
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Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof, second from left, is escorted from the Shelby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015. Roof is a suspect in the shooting of several people Wednesday night at the historic The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
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A group of women pray together at a make-shift memorial on the sidewalk in front of the Emanuel AME Church, Thursday, June 18, 2015 in Charleston, S.C.
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State Senator Vincent Sheheen (D-Kershaw) gets emtional as he sits next to the draped desk of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, Thursday, June 18, 2015, at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. Pinckney was one of those killed, Wednesday night in a shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
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A passing motorist looks out her window as she stops at an intersection down the street from the Emanuel AME Church early Thursday, June 18, 2015 following a shooting Wednesday night in Charleston, S.C.
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Police close off a section of Calhoun Street near the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Lisa Doctor joins a prayer circle down the street from the Emanuel AME Church early Thursday, June 18, 2015 following a shooting Wednesday night in Charleston, S.C.
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Worshippers gather to pray down the street from the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Police and EMT fireman outside the historic Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where a gunman opened fire on a prayer meeting killing nine people on June 17, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina.
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A distraught man is comforted as a group of concerned people arrive inquiring about a shooting across the street Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Worshippers embrace following a group prayer across the street from the scene of a shooting Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.
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Noah Nicolaisen, of Charleston, S.C., kneels at a makeshift memorial, Thursday, June 18, 2015, down the street from where a man opened fire Wednesday night during a prayer meeting inside the Emanuel AME Church, killing several people in what authorities are calling a hate crime.
"People say he was wrapped in hate, that he was a hateful person," said Democratic Rep. Justin Bamberg. "Well, his hate was wrapped in the cloak of that Confederate flag. That is why that flag is coming down."
Supporters of the flag were disappointed, but resigned.
"It's just like the conclusion of the war itself," said Rep. Mike Pitts, who submitted several amendments to fly a different flag on the pole that all failed. "The issue was settled, and the nation came back together to move on."
States across the nation are moving on without their Confederate symbols. The rebel flag is gone from the Alabama Capitol, and the U.S. House voted that it can no longer fly at historic federal cemeteries in the Deep South. A city council committee in Memphis wants to move a statue and the remains of Civil War hero and slave trader Nathan Bedford Forrest out of a prominent park, and officials in Alaska want a new moniker for a U.S. Census district named for Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton.
Haley said the removal of symbols that have become divisive is the right thing to do for the family members of those killed at Charleston's Emanuel AME.
"We saw the families show the world what true grace and forgiveness look like," Haley said. "That set off an action of compassion by people in South Carolina and all over this country. They stopped looking at their differences and started looking at their similarities."
Following the decision to remove the Confederate flag from the state's capitol grounds the NCAA announced the organization will end a nearly 15-year ban on South Carolina from hosting sanctioned championship events.
"With this impending change, and consistent with our policy, South Carolina may bid to host future NCAA championships once the flag no longer flies at the State House grounds," Kirk Schulz, NCAA Board of Governors chair said Thursday in a statement.
