SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona came face-to-face with South Carolina’s past today.

Several demonstrators waved the Confederate battle flag outside events in Greenville and Spartanburg, and a man annoyed about the state’s decision in 2000 to take the flag down from atop the state Capitol pestered McCain about it.

John Hill, 51, of Charleston, passed around literature at both events calling attention to McCain’s support in 2000 for the move to take the Civil War-era flag down from the State House dome and put a version of it on the grounds elsewhere.

African-Americans see the “Stars and Bars” as an unwelcome reminder of America’s slavery past and a symbol of racism.

During a question-and-answer session with voters in Spartanburg, Hill waved his arm around and finally got McCain’s attention.

He challenged McCain on his decision, saying 76 percent of Republicans in South Carolina had opposed it.

“My answer, sir, is that I cannot be more proud of the overwhelming majority of this state who have come together to take that flag off the top of that Capitol,” McCain told him and the crowd roared its approval of his answer.

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– Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (A Confederate flag flies on the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol in Columbia.)