Cam Newton: South Carolina lowering Confederate flag a 'triumph'
Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton praised South Carolina's lowering of the Confederate flag from outside its State House on Friday.
Newton spoke to ESPN at his Cam Newton Foundation 7 v 7 High School Football Tournament in Fort Mill, S.C., calling the flag's removal a “triumph.”
"It's very enlightening, very impactful to see that flag come down that was a remembrance of something not what this country is all about,'' Newton told ESPN. "This country is about the land of the free, and anybody can become anybody they want. With having a symbol that represented so much hatred, it's just a triumph for it to come down.''
The flag was removed following a racially-motivated June 17 mass killing in Charleston, S.C., where a white shooter shot and killed nine black churchgoers at the historic Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Newton went to Charleston and visited with family members of the victims in the week that followed, according to ESPN, while Panthers owner Jerry Richardson gave $10,000 to each family to assist with funerals and expenses. He also donated $10,000 to the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
- Jeremy Woo
