The NAACP and NCAA are both poised to lift their boycotts of South Carolina now that the Confederate flag will be removed from the Statehouse grounds.

The NAACP will consider an emergency resolution to lift its long-standing economic boycott at its national convention in Philadelphia on Saturday, President Cornell William Brooks said Thursday.

The announcement was made following the General Assembly’s decision to remove the flag from the Statehouse grounds.

“Today, South Carolina ushers the state and our country into a new era — one of unity and inclusion at a time of such profound tragedy,” he said in a statement posted on the NAACP website.

The NCAA Board of Governors said in a statement Thursday that its boycott of the state ends with the removal of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds.

“For nearly 15 years we have specifically protested the flag by not allowing states like South Carolina to host pre-selected NCAA championships. With this impending change, and consistent with our policy, South Carolina may bid to host future NCAA championships once the flag no longer flies at the Statehouse grounds,” said Kirk Schulz, NCAA Board of Governors chair and Kansas State University president.

The boycott began 15 years ago in response to the state’s decision to keep the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds after removing it from atop the Capitol dome.

The United Auto Workers and the NCAA joined the NAACP in the boycott.

The state’s move to remove the flag honors the lives of the nine people slain on June 17 in the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, including the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was a state senator, Brooks said.

“This decision will make South Carolina more welcoming and affirming of all people irrespective of their skin color,” he said.

The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce applauded the General Assembly’s courageous action in a statement.

“This is an important day that will result in many opportunities for our future,” the chamber said.

South Carolina is now, more than ever, a place where people will want to visit and where businesses will want to grow, the chamber said.

“More importantly, it is a place where the people who reside here work through their differences to show respect and love through the most difficult of times,” the chamber said.

The banner has long been a thorn in the side of state colleges, who were unable to host predetermined NCAA championship events such as the men’s basketball tournament, post-season golf events and bowl games. Following suit, the ACC moved its baseball tournament from Myrtle Beach to Durham, N.C.

Although the NCAA ban didn’t impact post-season events decided on merit — such as baseball, where the University of South Carolina and Clemson have regularly played on their home fields — USC’s nationally-ranked women’s basketball team was forced to play NCAA tournament games away from Colonial Life Arena until the format for the event was changed prior to this season.

The men’s NCAA basketball tournament has been absent from the state since the first and second rounds were contested in Greenville in 2002, which was scheduled before the ban went into effect.

The Confederate flag has flown on the Statehouse grounds for 54 years since being put up as a way of marking the 100th anniversary of the Civil War and also to protest the civil rights movement.

Gov. Nikki Haley and other conservatives didn’t begin a push to remove the flag until nine black churchgoers were killed during Bible study by a gunman who police say was motivated by racial hatred.

Haley signed the bill to remove the flag late Thursday afternoon after the House passed it earlier in the day. The measure says the flag must be removed within 24 hours of her signature. The final bipartisan compromise will remove the flag and place it in the nearby Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.

The flag is scheduled to come down in a ceremony planned for 10 a.m. Friday morning.

David Caraviello contributed to this report.