South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley Finally Says It's Time to Take the Confederate Flag Down From Statehouse After Charleston Shooting

"This flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state," she said Monday

Welcome to the 21st century, South Carolina.

Amid yet another mass outcry to get the Confederate flag still flying at the statehouse in Columbia taken down, Gov. Nikki Haley admitted Monday that it's time for the flag to go.

"Today we are here in a moment of unity in our state without ill will to say it is time to remove the flag from our capitol grounds," Haley, flanked by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, said in an address in the lobby of the statehouse. "We are not going to allow this symbol to divide us any longer."

"This flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state," she also said.

Sources told CNN that Graham and Scott—neither of whom addressed the crowd today—both support the effort to have the flag removed.

The latest demand to yank the 19th-century-era relic from South Carolina's legislative center comes after a gunman killed nine people in Charleston at one of the state's most historic African-American churches. All of the victims were black.

According to authorities, suspect Dylann Roof has confessed to the killings, telling investigators he wanted to start a "race war." A hate-packed manifesto attributed to Roof has also made the rounds.

Haley, who is Indian-American and became South Carolina's first non-white governor when she was elected in 2010, had in the past dismissed calls to take down the flag.

Calling it a "sensitive subject" back in October 2014, Haley said during a debate with Democratic challenger Vincent Sheehen before the November election, "What I can tell you is over the last three and a half years, I spent a lot of my days on the phones with CEOs and recruiting jobs to this state. I can honestly say I have not had one conversation with a single CEO about the Confederate flag."

"But we really kind of fixed all that when you elected the first Indian-American female governor," she also said at the time. "When we appointed the first African-American U.S. senator, that sent a huge message."

Meanwhile, the South Carolina legislature will have to agree on the issue before the flag can actually be removed. Per the Wall Street Journal, Haley said that she has asked the legislature to take the issue up this summer.

Well, summer officially began yesterday and the conversation can't start soon enough.