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Bree Newsome, who removed SC Confederate flag, barred from speaking to NC school

By LaVendrick Smith

September 28, 2017 03:28 PM

Bree Newsome removes the Confederate battle flag at a Confederate monument at the State House in Columbia, S.C. in June 2015.
Bree Newsome removes the Confederate battle flag at a Confederate monument at the State House in Columbia, S.C. in June 2015. Bruce Smith AP
Bree Newsome removes the Confederate battle flag at a Confederate monument at the State House in Columbia, S.C. in June 2015. Bruce Smith AP

Bree Newsome, a North Carolina activist known for removing the confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol in 2015, has been barred from speaking at a school in Asheville, according to multiple media reports.

Newsome, of Charlotte, was scheduled to speak to students at Asheville Middle School, but the school has a policy that prohibits the advocacy of illegal acts by a speaker, TV station WLOS reported. The cancellation comes after months of planning with school officials.

The action of taking the flag from the state capitol is at the center of her not being able to speak at the school, a school official told the Asheville Citizen-Times.

The decision has drawn criticism from people like local NAACP President Carmen Ramos-Kennedy.

“What’s more American than civil disobedience?” Ramos-Kennedy told the newspaper.

Newsome was arrested after removing the flag in June 2015. The protest happened in the aftermath of the shooting at Emanuel AME church in Charleston, where nine black churchgoers were killed by white supremacist Dylann Roof.

The shooting sparked a national debate about the Confederate flag and if it should be removed from statehouse grounds.

Newsome is still expected to speak at other events in Asheville on Friday and Saturday, Fox Carolina reported.

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