Two men caught by surveillance cameras arranging the flags.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Four Confederate battle flags were found on the grounds of the historically black Ebenezer Baptist Church near the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, and police and federal authorities are currently investigating who placed them there.
Police said two men were caught on surveillance video arranging the flags around the property, CBS affiliate WGCL in Atlanta reported.
Atlanta police Officer Gary Wade informed the Associated Press that a maintenance worker discovered the flags at 6 a.m. Thursday and notified the National Park Service, which operates the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site adjacent to the church.
Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church said the placement of four Confederate flags outside two of Atlanta’s historical sites early Thursday was a “terrorist act” intended to intimidate.
“Let the message go out that we will not be shaken by this,” Warnock said at a morning news conference. “We will not be intimidated.
Warnock said placement of the flag at the church was equivalent to placing a Swastika on a Jewish campus. He called the person or persons responsible “misguided.”
“This is a sickening and troubling and provocative act,” Warnock told NBC News. “Coming on the heels of the Charleston massacre … you have to take something like this seriously.”
Warnock also said it was ironic that the incident occurred on a day that he and other clergy from around the country had gathered to address the issue of racism and the “mass incarceration” of black men in prisons.