Confederate Flags Left Around Atlanta, Ga., Baptist Church

US police are investigating after four Confederate flags were found on the grounds of a church near the Martin Luther King Jr Center in Atlanta.

The small flags, which a custodian discovered spread out on the ground outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church early Thursday morning, were intended to send a message of racial hate, church leaders said.

Police say a maintenance worker saw the flags at 6 a.m. and contacted a federal park ranger, who then notified law enforcement.

Officials removed the flags and are keeping them as evidence.

Police told AJC that the church had security cameras, but it was not immediately clear whether they captured anything pertinent. Senior pastor Rev. Raphael Warnock described the provocation as a “terrorist threat” at the site that is dedicated to slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr, following the shooting of nine black church members during bible study in Charleston last month.

They were at the church to discuss the role of African American churches in social justice issues. Police have surveillance video taken from Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the police chief isn’t ruling out hate-crime charges, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It would be unnerving for any black church to find Confederate flags on its grounds. There were no more details about the suspects but Turner said the video would be released to the public soon.

“Let the message go out that we will not be shaken by this”, Warnock said at a morning news conference. “It ought to get the attention not only of black people but of freedom-loving people”, Rev. Warnock said. Nearby is the Martin Luther King Jr.

The flags were placed below a poster that states “BLACK LIVES MATTER, HANDS UP”, by a garbage can, on the path to the MLK Visitor Center and on the corner near the church.

The church’s reverend said grounds men were upset by the discovery of the flags. Warnock said the hateful act only strengthens their resolve, and he promised the city would remain peaceful.

“It was disturbing and sickening, but unfortunately not terribly surprising”, Warnock said of the latest incident.

“We have seen this kind of ugliness before, not just in the 1960s but in recent years, we’ve received calls in recent weeks, threatening calls with severe racialized language and slurs”.