Justice

One Brave Woman Just Took the Confederate Flag Into Her Own Hands

June 27th 2015

One plucky activist climbed a flagpole to remove the Confederate flag at the South Carolina capitol early Saturday.

Bree Newsome from Charlotte, North Carolina, wore climbing gear and scaled the flag pole in Columbia, South Carolina, while capitol police called for her to climb down. Once she reached the top, Newsome spoke out against the Confederate flag and what it represents. She brought the flag down, then was taken into police custody. ATTN: contacted Columbia Police Department but did not hear back at the time of publishing this story.

Her act of civil disobedience follows the funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a pastor and South Carolina state senator​, and one of the nine people killed in a horrific attack on the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. For people grappling with the massacre and subsequent manhunt, it was a bitter irony to see the Confederate flag fly on the grounds of the state capitol while all the other flags were at half-mast. A MoveOn.org petition calling for the flag's removal garnered more than 500,000 signatures and #TakeDowntheFlag started trending on social media outlets nationwide. Gov. Nikki Haley announced her support to take down the flag, although it is an apparently complicated process, and one that requires approval of two-thirds of the state legislature. If the state's assembly does not work on a bill to take down the flag by the end of the legislative year, she said she would have to call lawmakers to the capitol "under extraordinary measures."

Retailers also responded to the growing call to bring down the Confederate flag, issuing bans on Confederate paraphernalia.

Watch Newsome climb:


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