The helmeted woman who scaled a flagpole in front of the South Carolina Capitol last week to remove a Confederate battle flag calls it "the banner of racial intimidation and fear whose popularity seems to expand whenever black Americans appear to be making gains economically and politically in this country."
Bree Ann Byuarium Newsome climbed the 30-foot pool and detached the controversial flag before police arrested her and a male companion.
In a statement provided to USA TODAY, Newsome, 30, said her family was brought to the United States in chains, noting that generations of ancestors lived in slavery. Her great-great grandfather, she said, was called "Free Baby" because he was "their first child born free."
In a video of the incident, Newsome told security officers shouting at her to come down, "You come against me in the name of hatred, repression, and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today."
The flag, which flew above the Capitol dome until 2000, when lawmakers voted to move it to the a Confederate memorial on the Capitol grounds, became a target of anger after the shooting deaths June 17 of nine people meeting for Bible study at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.
Police have charged Dylann Roof, 21, with the murders. Roof has espoused white supremacist philosophies, writing that, in his experience, "blacks were the real racists." On his Facebook page, he posted photos of himself with a Confederate flag.
Roof wrote in a 2,444- word manifesto posted on a website days before the killings that the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and the persecution of his white killer, George Zimmerman, was the event that "truly awakened me" to racially charged crime and violence. After the February 2012 killing of Martin, an unarmed Florida 17-year-old, Roof said he began reading conservative news websites — among them the site of theCouncil of Conservative Citizens.
Newsome, in her four-page statement, said she "realized that now is the time for true courage the morning after the Charleston Massacre shook me to the core of my being." The next day, she wrote, she didn't know how to respond.
"We've been here before and here we are again: black people slain simply for being black; an attack on the black church as a place of spiritual refuge and community organization," she wrote.
"For far too long, white supremacy has dominated the politics of America resulting in the creation of racist laws and cultural practices designed to subjugate non-whites," Newsome wrote. "And the emblem of the confederacy, the stars and bars, in all its manifestations, has long been the most recognizable banner of this political ideology."
She and a small group of activists talked about their desire to see the Confederate flag removed from the Capitol grounds. In recent days, President Obama and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley have also called for the flag's removal from the public space. The state Legislature has said it will consider the issue.
We "decided to remove the flag immediately, both as an act of civil disobedience and as a demonstration of the power people have when we work together," Newsome wrote.
The flag, which is protected by state law, was hoisted again about 45 minutes later. A pro-flag rally that had been previously planned at the site took place as planned that morning.
"We removed the flag today because we can't wait any longer. We can't continue like this another day," Newsome said in a statement issued around the time of her arrest. "It's time for a new chapter where we are sincere about dismantling white supremacy and building toward true racial justice and equality."
Friends of Newsome's said that even as a teenager she was a leader. "This is what she was destined to do," Amy Adler, a classmate at Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, Md., told The BaltimoreSun. "She literally took (the flag) into her own hands, which is very much what she does."
Newsome's father, Clarence Newsome, is a former dean at Howard University, trustee of Duke University and president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the Sun reported.
Sherri Iacobelli, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety, said that Newsome and James Ian Tyson, 30, both from Charlotte, were charged with defacing monuments on state Capitol grounds. The misdemeanor charge carries a fine of up to $5,000, a prison term of up to three years or both.
A judge gave them each a $3,000 bond and told them they were allowed to leave the state if they wished. Democratic state Rep. Todd Rutherford of Columbia, who also is attorney, will represent Newsome. Rutherford is minority leader of the state House of Representatives.
Since Saturday, supporters have rushed to aid Newsome. Filmmaker Michael Moore said on Twitter that he would pay her bail "or any legal fees she has." An Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign had raised more than $114,800 in just two days, nearly six times its original $20,000 goal.
On Monday, Newsome said, "It is important to remember that our struggle doesn't end when the flag comes down. The Confederacy is a Southern thing, but white supremacy is not. Our generation has taken up the banner to fight battles we thought were won long ago."
