South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is expected to call on Monday for the Confederate battle flag to be taken down from the state capitol grounds, five days after a white gunman allegedly shot dead nine black worshipers at a historic Charleston church.

The move comes on a day when religious and elected leaders called on state lawmakers to remove the rallying symbol of the pro-slavery South during the U.S. Civil War. Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old charged with Wednesday's attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, had posted a racist manifesto on the Internet and posed with the flag.

Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, was expected to address the issue at a scheduled 4 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) briefing, a South Carolina state representative and a second Republican source told Reuters.