KIM CHANDLER and MARTIN SWANT

MONTGOMERY (AP) — Four Confederate flags were taken down from the grounds of the Alabama Capitol on Wednesday as Gov. Robert Bentley became the first southern governor to order the removal of Confederate banners since last week’s massacre at an African-American church.

The Republican governor, explaining his order, said the Confederate flag is part of the state’s history but its presence on the Capitol grounds was a “distraction” in a state dealing with a multitude of issues.

“It has become a distraction all over the country right now,” Bentley said Wednesday. “Off and on, it has always been a distraction.”

“In Alabama, this is part of our history and we need to honor that, but it’s offensive to some people … because unfortunately it’s like the swastika. Some people have adopted that as part of their maybe hate-filled groups, and that’s a shame,” Bentley said in reference to the Confederate battle flag.

Four Confederate flags — the first three official flags of the Confederacy and the square-shaped Confederate battle flag — flew at each corner of an 88-foot-tall Alabama Confederate Monument beside the Alabama Capitol.

Bentley quietly issued the order late Tuesday after ensuring he had the authority to have the flags removed.

State workers unceremoniously removed the four flags by 10 a.m. Wednesday and brought them inside the Capitol. The monument, which was dedicated in 1898, remains on the Capitol grounds.

About a dozen people showed up afterward to either protest or praise their removal.

Mike Williams, state adjutant for the Alabama division of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, wore a Confederate T-shirt and carried a large Confederate battle flag to the Capitol grounds, standing by the monument where the flags once stood.

He said the flag “has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with heritage.”

“My thoughts are if you don’t change peoples’ hearts, then changing flags won’t make a hill of beans. You change hearts first. Removing people’s heritage won’t change people’s hearts, except in the opposite direction,” he said. Williams said a protest would be held later.

African-American legislators quickly praised Bentley’s decision to remove the flags on his own accord, without a protracted legal or political fight.

“I am proud that the governor took the flag down from the Capitol grounds. That flag is a symbol of white supremacy,” said Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma.

Sanders was one of 14 African-American legislators arrested for trespassing in 1988 when they tried to yank down a Confederate flag that, at that time, flew atop the Alabama Capitol dome.

Sanders said if people want to display the symbol on their own, that is their choice, but “it sends the wrong message” to have it on the Capitol grounds.

“Any flag that flies on the state Capitol should be a flag that unites us rather than divides us,” said Rep. Darrio Melton, D-Selma.

Calls to remove Confederate symbols that dot the South reignited after the massacre of nine people at a black church in South Carolina last week. The white suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, posed in photos displaying Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags.

In the 20th century, the Confederate flag became a symbol of Southern defiance during the civil rights era. In 1963, former Gov. George C. Wallace ordered the battle flag hoisted over the Capitol dome during a fight with the federal government over ending school segregation. It was removed in the early 1990s.

Bentley said he has not made a decision about what to do about a state specialty tag for the Sons of Confederate Veterans that has a likeness of the Confederate flag.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard on Wednesday said he also asked the House clerk to remove the Confederate flag from the historic House chamber at the Alabama Capitol. The Legislature no longer meets in that room, but Hubbard said the flag would be a distraction in an upcoming special session on the state budget.

Bentley did not announce his decision ahead of time after previously declining to comment on the fate of the flag.

Williams, the Confederate flag supporter, said he was shocked by Bentley’s decision, noting that the governor signs an annual proclamation for Confederate History Month.

“He understands history, so I think he’s just bowing down to political pressure,” he said.

Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen called the removal an important first step.

“The legacy, if perhaps not the symbols, of slavery and Jim Crow still hangs heavily over our state. Discrimination is by no means a thing of the past.” Cohen said.