'Black Lives Matter': Graffiti appears on Confederate statue in Charleston
Vandalized memorial covered with tarp as city mourns church shooting victims
Graffiti that appeared on a Confederate memorial in Charleston, S.C., was covered up Sunday as the city continues to mourn the victims of last week's shooting massacre at a historic black church.
The inscription on the base of the statue — which honors the "Confederate Defenders of Charleston" who died at Fort Sumter — was covered in the red, spray-painted message, "Black Lives Matter."
"This is the problem," graffiti on another side of the memorial read. "#Racist."
Confederate Defenders of Charleston statue at The Battery vandalized with#BlackLivesMatter #chsnews pic.twitter.com/z4UFgW7whm
— Philip Weiss (@PhilipDWeiss) June 21, 2015
Shortly after photos were posted to Twitter showing the vandalism, two men covered the base with a large blue tarp.
Men not w/city of #Charleston covering up graffiti done to Confederate statue on Battery #chsnews @ABCNews4 #chs pic.twitter.com/ntA6qUGAXM
— Jason Tighe (@jtighe08) June 21, 2015
Confederate Defenders of Charleston statue vandalized with #BlackLivesMatter#chsnews pic.twitter.com/dzcpPLzjm8
— Philip Weiss (@PhilipDWeiss) June 21, 2015
The memorial, erected in 1932 in Charleston's White Point Garden, stands less than 2 miles from Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where nine black people were killed by a white gunman Wednesday during a Bible study session.
The killings have reignited a national discussion on race and renewed the debate over the Confederate flag, which still flies atop a 30-foot pole outside South Carolina's state capitol building.
"The flag has to come down," NAACP President Cornell Brooks said Friday. "This was not merely a mass shooting, not merely a matter of gun violence. This was a racial hate crime, and must be confronted as such."
Police say the suspected shooter, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, was driving a car that had an image of the Confederate flag emblazoned on the license plate when he was captured. Photos of Roof waving the flag have surfaced since his arrest.
"When we see that symbol lifted up as an emblem of hate, as a tool of hate, as an inspiration for hate, as an inspiration for violence — that symbol has to come down," Brooks said. "That symbol must be removed from our state capitol."
On Saturday, hundreds of protesters rallied outside the state capitol in Columbia calling for the flag to be taken down. Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney urged lawmakers to remove the flag out of respect for the church shooting victims, as did several current GOP candidates.
Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol. To many, it is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now to honor #Charleston victims.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) June 20, 2015
In St. Louis — where the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson, Mo., sparked violent protests last year — signs of support for Charleston covered the base of a similar statue.
#WhiteFolkWork #StandWithCharleston #BlackLivesMatter #Fergusonpic.twitter.com/jgZDi7YYzw
— #ShenequeProctor (@VSouza_STL) June 21, 2015
#BlackLivesMatter #Ferguson #StandWithCharleston #WhiteFolkWorkpic.twitter.com/HWLmAgmMf7
— #ShenequeProctor (@VSouza_STL) June 21, 2015
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