Confederate flags placed at Ebenezer church near MLK Center

Federal authorities and police are investigating after Confederate battle flags were found around the Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Martin Luther King Jr.

The Ebenezer Baptist Church is located near an older church of the same name where King was baptized and both he and his father, Martin Luther King, Sr., were pastors.

Sometime overnight, police said two white men were caught on surveillance video arranging the flags around the property, out on the grass, where they were discovered by maintenance workers Thursday morning.

ATLANTA (AP) – The latest on the investigation into Confederate flags found at the Ebenezer Baptist Church near the Martin Luther King Jr.

Turner said Atlanta police are working with federal partners, the National Park Service, Joint Terrorism Task Force and Atlanta’s Homeland Security Unit.

After the white suspect in last month’s massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston appeared in photos waving Confederate flags, a movement was renewed to remove the rebel flag from the public sphere around the South. The flag was flown by armies of the secessionist pro-slavery Confederacy during the Civil War and is claimed by some white southerners as a symbol of regional and ancestral pride. Warnock said the hateful act only strengthens their resolve, and he promised the city would remain peaceful. Officials say Confederate flags have been placed on the center’s campus before, including at King’s tomb. We’ve seen this type of ugliness before. Park Service police later told workers the flags should be treated as evidence and not handled, he said.

Considering the heated nature of the conversation about confederate flags, added to the well known attack on a church congregation in South Carolina, authorities said they’re not taking any chances and they’re dealing with the matter swiftly. A security guard saw a suspicious vehicle across the street from the church Wednesday night, but it wasn’t clear whether that was related.