Police and the Atlantans are reacting with outrage over the placement of four Confederate flags at Ebenezer Baptist Church and the King Center yesterday. The obvious racially inflammatory act is considered by many to be a hate crime, a desecration of Dr. Martin L. King Jr.’s legacy, and an attempt at intimidation. Atlanta police were able to pull video footage of two White men they believe are responsible for the heinous act.
Dr. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, called the men “cowardly and misguided individuals” and that “This is the same as a swastika on the campus of a Jewish temple.”
“This act by a cowardly and misguided individual or individuals is provocative to say the least. It ought to get the attention, not only of Black people, but of freedom-loving people. To place Confederate flags on the campus of Ebenezer Baptist Church after this horrific act in Charleston, in the wake of all this happening in our country, whatever the message was, it was clearly not about heritage, it was about hate,” Warnock stated at a press conference on Thursday.
The area around the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change consists of the new Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King Jr.’s boyhood home, and the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where King was baptized, and both his father, Martin Luther King Sr., and he were pastors.
Although Atlanta used to be the home of the universal headquarters of the KKK during the 1920s, Georgia has no hate crime law. Police are still trying to identify the suspects and stated they could face charges of criminal trespassing, terroristic threats and littering.
