The online retailer Amazon will remove all Confederate flag merchandise from its website, a move that comes amid growing public criticism and skyrocketing sales of the so-called "Southern cross," a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
Amazon's decision, first reported by CNN's M.J. Lee, came after similar moves by Wal-Mart, Sears and eBay, all of which have pulled sales of Confederate flag merchandise over the past 24 hours. In that same time period, Amazon had seen its sales of Confederate flags grow by more than 3,000 percent.
The controversy over the flag follows last week's church massacre in Charleston, which left nine African-American people dead at the hands of a white gunman. On Monday, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called for the flag's removal from the Capitol grounds in Columbia. "This flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state," she said.
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