The Confederate battle flag has been an albatross around David Beasley's neck for 20 years, costing him the political legacy of a second gubernatorial term, a seat in the US Senate and beyond.
Now that it's been removed from South Carolina's Statehouse grounds, the former Republican governor says the unity that has grown from the flag debate was worth the wait and personal sacrifice.
As governor in 1996, Beasley infuriated fellow Republicans when, amid threats of boycotts and lawsuits and protests, he went on statewide television, saying he had reversed his position on whether the flag should remain atop the dome of the state capitol after praying about it.
The flag was flown by troops supporting the secessionist, pro-slavery Confederacy of southern states during the 1861-1865 Civil War.
Lawmakers rejected Beasley's plan to relocate the flag to a monument on the grounds, and voters bounced him from office in a 1998 re-election bid.
Yet, in 2000, Beasley watched as his proposal essentially came to life, as the flag was raised on a pole near a monument to Confederate soldiers on the Statehouse grounds.
In 2004, Beasley returned to politics, vying for the US Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Fritz Hollings.
Confederate flag supporters hounded Beasley at almost every campaign stop, accusing him of being disloyal and dishonest for wanting to move the flag from its perch on the dome.
He ultimately lost the Republican nomination to conservative Jim DeMint, left politics and went on to teach at Harvard University, do missionary work and receive a Profile in Courage Award from the John F Kennedy Library and Museum for his work to move the flag.
This week, Beasley watched as another Republican governor, Nikki Haley, put ink to paper and signed the bill that would remove the flag from the Statehouse grounds entirely.
Choking up as he reflected on the nine black Charleston churchgoers including the church pastor who served in the South Carolina Senate, Clementa Pinckney whose deaths last month fueled the momentum that ultimately pulled the flag down, Beasley said he spent the days after the shootings talking to lawmakers whose minds he would have never thought would change when it comes to the flag.
