Martin Luther King Jr. spiritual home, Ebenezer Baptist Church, was the most recent victim of hate crime against the church with the alleged spraying of Confederate flags layed across its Horizon Sanctuary Campus and at the Martin Luther King jr. Center for Social Change.
Atlanta Police Chief George Turner said surveillance video shows two white males placing the flags. Turner said Atlanta police are working with federal partners, the National Park Service, Joint Terrorism Task Force and Atlanta’s Homeland Security Unit.
As the confederate battle flags were stealthily placed on the grounds of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church, authorities said Thursday they were looking for two white males who were recorded on surveillance camera leaving the banners behind. Police said they may release the surveillance video to the public.
Also present oniste was an officer from the Atlanta FBI’s joint terrorism task force “to better determine if any specific threats were received” and to provide support to Atlanta police, FBI Special Agent Steve Emmett said in an email.
As many of us know, Atlanta is described as the birth place of the civil rights movement and often times the City and State have come to blows with regard to race relations. Many have asked how could a beautiful city like Atlanta be located in such a racist state as Georgia. It was a battle to successfully get the confederate flag removed from being the state flag, it was finnaly changed in 2001.
Martin Luther King Jr.preached and served as Co-pastor at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, once a bustling center of commerce for Atlanta’s African-American businesses and residents. The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, the historic church and its new building, the Horizon Sanctuary — where congregants now meet and where the flags were placed — are a short walk from the home of King’s grandparents, where the slain civil rights leader lived for the first 12 years of his life.