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Statement

Moms Group Applauds Bree Newsome for Removing Confederate Flag at South Carolina Capitol Building

June 30, 2015
Maternal Health

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

MomsRising.org Calls on Governors and State Legislators to Take Down All Confederate Flags
Over the weekend, an educator and activist named Bree Newsome scaled the 30ft flag pole at the South Carolina State Capitol Building and removed the confederate flag. MomsRising.org  fully supports Bree’s actions and is joining the growing chorus of organizations to call for all charges against Ms. Newsome to be dropped immediately.
 
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising.org issued the following statement in solidarity with Bree Newsome:
 
“Over the weekend, Bree Newsome took bold action to expedite the process of removing the Confederate flag from public spaces across the South.  On behalf of our more than one million members, MomsRising joins with other organizations across the country to call on South Carolina to drop all charges against Bree Newsome and take immediate action remove the Confederate flags from all public places.
 
The Confederate flag has long been a symbol of racism - and barbaric policies of segregation and Jim Crow laws - that continue to undermine people of color in the United States. 
 
After more than a week since State Senator Pickney and eight other mothers, fathers, and grandparents were gunned down in a vicious act of racial terrorism - Bree Newsome’s action to take down the flag, still flying over the South Carolina State Capitol Building - was nothing short of heroic.
 
But we must do more than just remove the the Confederate flag from public spaces - we must combat institutional racism itself.  MomsRising.org calls on our elected officials in all fifty states to conduct Racial Equity Impact Assessment of our laws, policies, and practices, which is just one vital tool for identifying inequities and preventing institutional racism.”
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON RACIAL EQUITY IMPACT ASSESSEMENTS: https://www.raceforward.org/practice/tools/racial-equity-impact-assessment-toolkit
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.