An absolutely packed House of Representatives: Speaker pro tem Jason White introduces the resolution that will suspend the rules and allow the bill to change the state flag.

White quotes President Lincoln: We cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves.

It goes like this: the bill removes the flag effective immediately, create a commission which must design and present a new state flag by September 14. Voters will approve or deny that flag at the ballot in November. If the flag is rejected, the commission will return to work.

To be clear, if the bill is successful today, that's it. No more Confederate flag.

Tune in now to watch the most passionate arguments for the right to choose you'll see on this side of the aisle.

And that's it. The resolution passes.

Rep. Debra Hendricks Gibbs can't hide her joy as the resolution sails out of the House.

For House Speaker Philip Gunn, the fight against the Confederate flag is strictly biblical. "Love thy God and love thy neighbor," he says. That includes with our symbols.

Speaker Gunn on the bill's chances in the Senate: Hosemann says they have the votes, bill coming as early as tomorrow.

Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr. tells me this vote is for those who have fought the good fight. "Folks like Sen. Henry Kirksey, Rep. Blackmon, Rep. Clark, some of these older members ... Folks have been fighting this thing for so long. But I'm excited for a new futute for MS too."

If you're looking for updates, stay tuned. The bill passed with immediate release, so technically there is nothing stopping the Senate from taking it up immediately. An energetic atmosphere all throughout the people's house. A far cry from the morning tension. You can feel it.

UPDATE: I really think this is happening, folks.

And here comes the Rules Committee hearing.

This is the loudest quiet I've heard in a long time.

Sen. Dean Kirby explains the bill. Sen. Hillman Frazier clarifies that the newly designed bill cannot contain any aspect of the current flag: meaning Confederate iconography.

Bill passes out of committee. Now to the Senate floor. Here we go.

Folks, it's going to be an absolute nailbiter. My understanding is that it's going to be down to one or two Senators. Cold feet could stop the bill in its tracks.

A moment of levity as Lt. Gov. Hosemann teases @GeoffPender. "Man, I thought you quit," complains Hosemann.

Unclear what is happening just now. People milling about, conversations all over the Senate floor. We can only assume the last few holdouts are making their final decisions on the rules suspension.

Quiet falls over the chamber. Here we go.

There is an attempt to stop the resolution from even being called up. We'll hear support and opposition coming in now.

Real confusion on the Senate floor. Total quiet. You could hear a pin drop.

36-14. Bill passes to the floor.

Bill has passed TO THE FLOOR, I must stress. It's not over yet Mississippi. The real fight is still coming.

Sen. Briggs Hopson says Mississippi has a date with destiny. "This flag is beloved by some, and reviled by many." But "this will continue to come up again and again and again. This flag will change. I'm ready to rip the band-aid off."

Here comes Sen. McDaniel, who has led the opposition to the bill on the Senate side.

"You can't freeze frame a moment in history ... and judge it for that mistake." McDaniels. The senator rails against a movement he says seeks to destroy opposing viewpoints, monuments. "It is a terrible slippery slope," he warns.

Senator Barbara Blackmon takes the podium, telling the chamber of historical moments she has witnessed in the past: from the assassination of JFK to the election of Barack Obama. "This is historical," she said, to her and to her children and grandchildren.

Blackmon quotes MLK Jr. "Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'"

And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right," she says, and steps away.

Sen. Hillman Frazier, one of the legislative leaders of the movement to remove the flag, tells a story: the moral "Pray first, aim high, and stay focused."

Here comes the vote...

MOTION PASSES.

Okay, let me break it down: Final vote 35-15 to suspend the rules. That means that tomorrow, they can actually adopt the bill to change the State Flag, which will need a mere majority in both chambers to pass.

But the bottom line is the coalition holds, and there is a huge likelihood the State Flag will change.

"This is one step forward," says Lt. Gov. Hosemann. Expresses pride in his senators.

A genuinely beautiful moment between Sen. Derrick Simmons and Sen. Brice Wiggins. There are tears in Simmons eyes. Simmons tells me this was a vote for Mississippi's tomorrow.