Duo who removed the Confederate Flag from South Carolina’s capitol tell their story (NC)
Posted on September 19, 2015 by Cole Huther
... members of the public packed Warren Wilson College’s Kittredge Community Arts Center this week to quiz activists Bree Newsome and Warren Wilson alumnus Jimmy Tyson about why they took down a Confederate Battle flag ...
Newsome, a North Carolina resident, said she has regarded herself as a film artist for most of her life. It was only after the shooting of Trayvon Martin and public protests against North Carolina’s voter ID law that she began to identify herself as an activist ... It deeply disturbed and angered her, Newsome said, that South Carolina government property would have a Confederate Battle Flag flying at full mast while the victims of South Carolinian racist violence were being laid to rest. It was at this point that she mustered the final gumption to .. proclaim, “This flag comes down today.”
Newsome’s intention to take down the flag, was, she said, to “force a moral question” over the official use of a symbol that has been frequently used to represent anger and opposition to the desegregation of the South ... Tyson said their action to remove the flag was to “force the hypocrisy of the state,” since they figured the flag would be quickly put back up despite the discussion of its removal. (The flag was, indeed, raised again 45 minutes after Newsome and Tyson took it down.) ...
https://mountainx.com/news/duo-who-removed-the-confederate-flag-from-south-carolinas-capitol-tell-their-story/