Letter from a Columbia Jail

OK, actually I'm pretty sure that Bree Newsome -- the Spiderwoman-y. Scripture-spouting superhero of social protest who shimmied up that South Carolina flagpole last Saturday and took down the Confederate flag, however briefly -- wasn't actually still in jail when she wrote this manifesto defending her actions. On the other hand, I do think you have to go back to the time of Dr. Martin Luther King and his travails in Birmingham in 1963 to find such a stirring defense of the act of civil disobedience.

Here's an excerpt:

 We discussed it and 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. Achieving this would require many roles, including someone who must volunteer to scale the pole and remove the flag. It was decided that this role should go to a black woman and that a white man should be the one to help her over the fence as a sign that our alliance transcended both racial and gender divides. We made this decision because for us, this is not simply about a flag, but rather it is about abolishing the spirit of hatred and oppression in all its forms.

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.

There's an understandable debate about this act, especially as South Carolina's lawmakers debate the proposal to take the Stars and Bars down for good, and as that proposal seems fairly likely to pass. And this is, after all, an act of active, not passive, resistance. To me, though, this is straight-up, classic civil disobedience -- non-violent, by an activist willing to undergo arrest and detention to show the injustice of a law. In the recent months, we've seen more people like Bree willing to take a risk and make a stand. In a spring where we've seen a few other positive developments, what could be more hopeful than that?