Another reason to be happy today.
This morning, at dawn, a filmmaker and activist by the name of Brittany ‘Bree’ Newsome, scaled the flagpole in front of the South Carolina capitol and took down the Confederate flag that has flow there since the early 1960s.
Newsome, a North Carolina activist, can be heard in the above footage to say, “I am coming down. I am prepared to be arrested.” And she was. The flag has also now been replaced. But one would think that, now that it’s been taken down once, it’ll be taken down again.
In spite all of the bad stuff we’re dealign with as a nation, this has been a good week in America.
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#BreeistherealMVP
I would have seen Newsome’s act as a brave act of civil disobedience if she did it last year–or even two weeks ago. The timing of it, seems like a last minute attempt to perform a low risk/ high reward act, which will garner her some easy self-promotional-cha-ching. It feels like, in large part a self marketing ploy. I could be wrong. I am sorry if that is too cynical. Someone commented on another blog that her act is MLK’esque….
For what it’s worth, people said the same thing about Rosa Parks.
Confederate flag parade in Georgia.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=374_1435549300
WHO IS BREE NEWSOME?
Michael Moore tweeted that he’d pay all the legal expenses for her and the other person charged.
“Ku Klux Klan: Chapter of White Supremacist Group Plans Rally on South Carolina Statehouse Grounds. The Pelham, N.C., group has asked for permission to rally on the grounds on July 18, a S.C. state official said. State lawmakers are due to vote soon on the removal of the Confederate flag.” Are any Michigan-based chapters heading down to South Carolina on the 18th?
“I removed the flag not only in defiance of those who enslaved my ancestors in the southern United States, but also in defiance of the oppression that continues against black people globally in 2015, including the ongoing ethnic cleansing in the Dominican Republic. I did it in solidarity with the South African students who toppled a statue of the white supremacist, colonialist Cecil Rhodes. I did it for all the fierce black women on the front lines of the movement and for all the little black girls who are watching us. I did it because I am free.
To all those who might label me an “outside agitator,” I say to you that humanitarianism has no borders. I am a global citizen. My prayers are with the poor, the afflicted and the oppressed everywhere in the world, as Christ instructs. If this act of disobedience can also serve as a symbol to other peoples’ struggles against oppression or as a symbol of victory over fear and hate, then I know all the more that I did the right thing.”
MORE-
http://bluenationreview.com/exclusive-bree-newsome-speaks-for-the-first-time-after-courageous-act-of-civil-disobedience/#ixzz3eYWlIp20
1 of the 20 coolest teens named by YM magazine in 2004.
Appears to have the support of the Ypsilanti coal miner clique….
AND NOW IT’S REALLY DOWN.
Cheers and singing erupted as the Confederate battle flag was lowered on the grounds of the South Carolina State House.
In a tweet, President Obama called the removal “a signal of good will and healing, and a meaningful step towards a better future.”
“There’s not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”