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Courthouse News Service reports
A woman climbed a flagpole and cut down the Confederate flag in front of the South Carolina statehouse Saturday before promptly being arrested and seeing the banner raised again less than an hour later.
Bree Newsome, dressed in climbing gear, spoke respectfully with police gathered at the base of the flag pole as she continued to move ever closer to the flag. A video of her climb captures Newsome, a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, talking to police from about two-thirds the way up the 30-foot pole, evidently acknowledging her imminent arrest.
"I know sir. I'm prepared", she says.
"Ma'am, come down off the pole", the officers yell as passing motorists honked their horns at the scene.
"You cannot get to me with hatred and oppression and violence", Newsome shouted as she cut the flag down. "In the name of God, this flag comes down today."
The New York Daily News identifies the woman as Brittany Ann Byuarium (Bree) Newsome of Charlotte, NC and continues
[...] When she reached the bottom, State Police took the flag out of her hands and arrested her. Another North Carolina activist, James Tyson, climbed over the four-foot wrought-iron fence and held the pole to make sure Newsome didn't fall, Lewis said. He was arrested alongside Newsome as a group of onlookers cheered off camera. The 30-year-olds were charged with defacing a monument on state Capitol grounds, a misdemeanor that can bring up to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
A judge ordered $3,000 bond for each of them and said they were free to travel to other states.
(Score: 1) by Eristone on Monday June 29 2015, @09:47PM
It is posts like this that remind me that people don't pay much attention to history, the laws that were in effect until roughly 1965 and then the societal rules that were in effect til roughly... (looking at my watch) yep. Look up red-lining. Look up racial restrictive covenants. Look up "white flight". Unlike those who fled Cuba (and personally I am glad that your family was able to make it starting out with as little as they had available), the typical negro family could either not get credit, or if it was available it would be at crazy interest rates, were restricted in where they could live, who they could associate with and $DEITY help the poor sap who thought the white girl was cute - if he was lucky he was able to crawl away.
After 1965, it became illegal for the government to officially keep you down, but that did not change the bureaucracy - that change took the people running it to retire, die, be replaced or see their error. Considering some police departments, the "die" part hasn't happened yet. Speaking of family stories, my father used to tell the one where (early 70s) an aerospace company in Southern California would supply the pens the applicants would use to fill out applications. African Americans would be given blue pens, White applicants were given black pens. Applications filled out in blue ink would go to the very bottom of the pile when they started to screen people.
If you move to say 2014, wasn't there a case of a fraternity that stated it would never have African American members in Oklahoma? Racism in this country is still there, just not as up front as it was in the days of "Whites Only" water fountains.