The South Carolina House approved a measure Wednesday to remove the Confederate flag from the state house grounds. The decision followed 13 hours of debate.

The bill will now head to the desk of Governor Nikki Haley, who has said that she will sign it.

"Today, as the Senate did before them, the House of Representatives has served the State of South Carolina and her people with great dignity," Haley said in a statement following the House vote. "I'm grateful for their service and their compassion. 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 movement to remove the flag from the South Carolina state house grounds arose after the murder of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church by a shooter with white supremacy sympathies.

"The flag has been flying at the Statehouse since the early 1960s – serving, for many, as a reminder of a racist past. Others have argued that the flag reflects Southern pride," explains ABC News.