Civil rights advocate Bree Newsome calls for student activism

Correction: The headline previously stated Larson instead of Newsome.

Activist and filmmaker Bree Newsome spoke about social and political activism and the importance of race consciousness in Charles Commons Salon C on Wednesday. She came as part of the Office of Multicultural Affairs’ (OMA) Candid Conversations in the Commons series, a component of Hopkins’ celebration of Black History Month.

Newsome rose to national prominence as an activist in June 2015 when she was arrested for removing the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina State House. Newsome’s actions were prompted by the Charleston church massacre that had taken place earlier that month and resulted in the death of nine parishioners. Two weeks later on July 10 the flag was removed by Gov. Nikki Haley.

A Columbia, Md. native, Newsome is a graduate of New York University, where she studied Television and Film. Her short films The Three Princes of Idea and Wake have received numerous awards and accolades.

Newsome was introduced by OMA Assistant Director for Diversity Education and Community Partnerships Carla Hopkins.

Newsome began her talk by posing the question: “What does it mean to be conscious?”

“It means simply to be aware of our unconscious behavior,” she said. “The process of going from unconscious to conscious is a choice an individual must make. It’s an age-old aphorism: Know thyself.”

Newsome attributed the beginning of her career as an activist and the awakening of her socio-political consciousness to the summer of 2013. She had returned to North Carolina after serving as the first artist in residence at Saatchi & Saatchi Ad Agency and visited the Old Slave Mart Museum in Charleston with her family. There she reflected on her ancestors’ history as slaves and contemplated the difficulties and adversity they faced. That same summer, George Zimmerman, an armed neighborhood watchman, was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, a young black man. Newsome then began participating in protests.

“I was deeply disturbed by the facts and circumstances surrounding Trayvon’s death,” she said. “The case sparked a new movement led by black and brown youth who saw themselves in Trayvon... This was — this is — the new Civil Rights movement, and I was excited to be part of it — to be part of a cause much greater than myself, to help carry forward the banner of freedom, equality and justice.”

Newsome explained that the Trayvon Martin case not only inspired many civil rights activists, but also Dylann Roof, the man who carried out the 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. She explained that Roof’s actions were part of a long history of violence against black churches.

“Roof traveled to Charleston from Columbia, South Carolina, where, since 1962, a Confederate flag had flown above the state capital as a statement of white supremacist power, as a symbol of defiance against the Civil Rights movement and increasing pressure from the federal government to de-segregate,” she said. “Being a child of the South... the meaning of the Confederate flag was never lost on me. It was a banner that first represented slavery, and then, after the South lost the war, it became emblematic of the Jim Crow laws that would govern the South for the next hundred years.”

Newsome explained that although many have protested the presence of the Confederate battle flag, it has continued to fly outside the state building. Following the church massacre, public outrage resurfaced over South Carolina’s allowance of a hate symbol. Newsome and fellow protestors were inspired to take action.

“I determined that an action to take down the flag was a cause for which I would definitely risk getting arrested again,” Newsome said. “We 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. Once I volunteered, it was decided that a white man should be the one to help me over the fence, a sign that our alliance transcended both racial and gender divides... This is not simply about a flag, but rather, it is about abolishing the spirit of hatred and oppression in all of its forms.”

Newsome concluded her talk by encouraging students to be activists.

“The concept of ‘everyone is a leader’ is not simply about abolishing hierarchies in leadership, but also about establishing collective responsibility,” she said. “Everyone can help lead the way towards a just society.”

Students reacted favorably to Newsome’s talk. Junior Bitseti Hagos loved Newsome’s talk and was inspired by her act of civil disobedience.

“I remember back in June, when I heard about Bree Newsome scaling the pole and taking down the flag, I felt very empowered,” she said. “I was very happy, being a black woman, to see another black woman doing something so courageous, not allowing the fear of white supremacy hold her down and doing what she felt was necessary... to dismantle this power system that oppresses us.”

Morgan State University students Joy Barnes and Jeremy Collins both enjoyed Newsome’s messages for activists.

“I really liked [Newsome’s] focus on grassroots building and showing that [the movement] isn’t about one person,” Collins said. “A revolution isn’t Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi, but the ideas that they held.”

“The fact that she climbed the flagpole is a symbol of everything activists in this nation have been trying to do for so long,” Barnes said. “That is a physical embodiment of all the work that everyone is trying to do, and when she did that, she found a way to dismantle institutional racism.”

Freshman Vanessa Richards appreciated Newsome’s explanation consciousness.

“I took away a message about what it means to be conscious in a day and age where consciousness gets talked about a lot, but not what consciousness is,” she said.

OMA Asst. Director Hopkins explained that Newsome was chosen as a speaker for her accessibility to students.

“Bree represents a generational shift in terms of social activism, and we’re in an age where [the focus is] celebrity culture, reality television and big brand names,” she said. “I thought it was really important as students here at Johns Hopkins have been involved in activism, both our students of color and non-color, that they see an ordinary, contemporary who started out like they did on a college campus becoming more aware of things around them, and then translating that into community awareness.”