COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Confederate flag that flutters 30 feet above one of this city's busiest streets still draws a mix of head shakes and shrugs from South Carolina residents.
Some are upset the banner was removed from atop the State House dome eight years ago. Some say they like it in its current spot beside a memorial to Confederate soldiers. And some echo a recent call by the NAACP for the banner to be removed from state property altogether.
"I used to have to crane my neck to see it," said Hester Ellerbee, a black woman from Cheraw who visits the city three times a month. "Now it's right there in front of you."
The NAACP at its national convention this week renewed its call for an economic boycott of South Carolina. Since 1999, the civil rights organization has encouraged family reunions, sporting events, and entertainers to stay away from the state and officials say their new plan entails asking actors and movie studios to shun the state's efforts to lure filmmakers.
"We are a patient organization. We've been working for 100 years doing this. And as is always the case, outside pressure is the only way South Carolina ever gets anything accomplished," said Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
But in this normally laid-back state, where a rare outbreak of protests and marches helped force the flag from its prominent perch in 2000, there appears to be little popular support for another push.
Some lawmakers who engineered the move to the current spot say they're satisfied. Some say the banner, passed by 28,000 drivers each day, has faded into the background. And even those who aren't pleased say there's neither the political will nor the public outcry to make another switch.
"It will take the next generation of lawmakers to resolve the issue," says state Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a black Democrat from Orangeburg.
The NAACP and other critics call the Confederate battle flag a symbol of slavery and racism. Advocates say it is an emblem of Southern pride and heritage.
The flag was hoisted above the State House in 1962. Several efforts in the 1990s to move it failed. By 2000, opinions started to turn. With support from the state's business community, people took to the streets in a spurt of activism considered unusual for the state.
Nearly 50,000 people marched on the capitol. Former governors, religious leaders, and the football coaches of Clemson and the University of South Carolina joined a 110-mile march from Charleston to Columbia. Tennis star Serena Williams made headlines when she pulled out of a tournament.