VIDEO: Activist accused of removing Confederate flag in South Carolina speaks out

COLUMBIA, SC (KTRK) -- The 30-year-old activist who is accused of removing the Confederate flag from the pole outside the Columbia, South Carolina capitol building shared why she allegedly did it.

Brittany Ann Byuarim Newsome of Raleigh, NC -- asked by local station WIS why she did it -- replied, "Because it was the right thing to do and it's time for somebody to step up, do the right thing, we have to bury hate, it's killing us literally. We can't do this. We can't be warring with each other all the time. It's not right."

Asked why one shouldn't wait for lawmakers vote to take it down, Newsome replied, "What is there to vote on? There's doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing. It's time for the people to have the courage to -- everybody knows what the right thing is to do. We have to step up in love and non-violence. We have to do the right thing or else it won't stop.

"Every day that flag flies up there, it is an endorsement of hate," she said. "I prayed on it, and I was very afraid but I wasn't afraid anymore because you know, the lord calls us all to do different things. That's why he me to do this, this is what I'll do."