According to www.thestate.com, "Newsome and Tyson were taken to Richland County's Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, where a judge set a $3,000 bond for each of them and said they would be allowed to travel to North Carolina in the meantime before their trial date, July 27. Both of them posted bail immediately."
The NAACP has been calling for the removal of the flag for fifteen years. In a statement their president and CEO, Cornell William Brooks, said:
"...we commend the courage and moral impulse of Ms. Newsome as she stands for justice like many NAACP activists including Henry David Thoreau, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and numerous Americans who have engaged in civil disobedience.
"The NAACP calls on state prosecutors to consider the moral inspiration behind the civil disobedience of this young practitioner of democracy. Prosecutors should treat Ms. Newsome with the same large-hearted measure of justice that inspired her actions. The NAACP stands with our youth and behind the multigenerational band of activists fighting the substance and symbols of bigotry, hatred and intolerance."
Thestate.com noted that "The Confederate flag, raised more than 50 years ago atop the South Carolina State House, was taken off the dome as part of a compromise in 2000. But its placement on the State House grounds, directly in front of the capitol, has continued to cause criticism."
State employees replaced the offending flag to its former position within several hours of the incident.
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley had the confederate flag removed Wednesday from the Capitol grounds in Montgomery. Bentley said it was his decision to bring the flag down, calling it "the right thing to do."
Efforts to remove symbols of the Confederacy are also underway in Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and other parts of the former Confederacy.
Newsome is a graduate of New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts where she received a BFA in Film & Television. While still in high school, Newsome created an animated short which earned her a $40,000 scholarship from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. She was awarded the coveted Paderewski Medal from the National Piano Guild and won a $12,000 scholarship in the vocal arts portion of the Maryland Distinguished Scholars Competition. Newsome produced 'Shake It Like An Etch A Sketch,' a Mitt Romney satire, during the last presidential election cycle.
Newsome joins a long list of practitioners of civil disobedience including Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Mohandas Ghandi, Daniel Berrigan and Rosa Parks.
I'm thrilled and inspired by Newsome, but also sorry that a blue-eyed blonde didn't scale that flagpole. Those of us with lighter colorations are being called to step up to help protect the rights of our deeper-complexioned brothers and sisters.
As the archetype of a Black Madonna emerging from the depths of our collective unconscious, Bree's inspired actions may begin to save us from ourselves.
RESOURCES
The the #TakeItDown campaign is a movement that is pressuring lawmakers in Mississippi and South Carolina to remove the flag.
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