Woman removes Confederate flag in front of SC statehouse

The Confederate flag was temporarily removed from in front of the South Carolina Statehouse by an African-American woman before she and another person were arrested on Saturday.  

A woman, identified in media reports as Bree Newsome of Charlotte, N.C, was about halfway up the more than 30-foot steel flagpole just after dawn when State Capitol police told her to come down.

Instead, she continued up and removed the flag before returning to the ground.

The woman and another man who had entered the wrought-iron fence surrounding the flag were arrested.

The flag, which is protected by state law, was raised again a short time later. A rally by flag supporters was scheduled for later Saturday.

Calls for removing the flag have been renewed since nine black churchgoers were killed in what police characterized as a hate crime at a Charleston, South Carolina church last week.

On Friday, President Barack Obama sang a hymn of hope and spoke with the fervor of a preacher as he eulogized Rev. Clementa Pinckney and eight parishioners gunned down at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Obama minced no words in calling for an end to racial injustice and gun violence in the United States.

In his eulogy for Pinckney, Obama began singing "Amazing Grace," quickly joined by ministers and some of the thousands who packed into the arena at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

The nation's first black president called for gun control and efforts to eliminate poverty and job discrimination, and said the Confederate battle flag must be removed from places of honor.

"For many — black and white — that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation. We see that now," he said. 

The Associated Press