After weeks of intense national debate, the Confederate battle flag was removed from the South Carolina Capitol on Friday.

The controversial flag was first raised over the Statehouse in 1961 to mark the 100-year anniversary of the Civil War. It was also raised as a symbol of white resistance to the growing Civil Rights movement and effort to end segregation.

However, debate over the flag reignited after a racist white man named Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people praying inside of a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17. Before the attack, the professed gunman posed with the flag and allegedly embraced it as a symbol of white supremacy.

Following the massacre, civil rights leaders across the country argued that South Carolina remove the flag from its Capitol because it represented racism and hate. Their demands were finally heard when Republican Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill Thursday afternoon calling for the flag's removal.

Hundreds of people gathered around the Statehouse grounds on Friday morning to watch the Confederate battle flag be taken down. The crowd cheered and shouted chants, including, "Take it down! Take it down!" as an officer from the South Carolina Highway Patrol marched toward the flag pole, reports NBC News.

Two troopers lowered the flag and folded it up while some onlookers broke out in song and others shouted, "USA! USA!" The flag was then handed to Department of Public Safety Director Leroy Smith.

"Finally we can breathe, we can sigh, we can cheer," said former state Rep. Bakari Sellers, according to CNN. "This is why Rosa sat and Martin marched, so that we can have events like this."

Following the brief flag-lowering ceremony, President Barack Obama called the flag's removal "a signal of good will and healing, and a meaningful step towards a better future" in a tweet.