Authorities were searching late Thursday for two men caught on surveillance video placing Confederate battle flags around the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.

Ebenezer Baptist Church Executive Pastor Reverend Shannon Jones told WAGA that four flags were laid out flat on the ground around the church sometime Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

It was the latest provocative act involving the Civil War-era symbol since nine black church members were gunned down during Bible study in South Carolina last month, and it happened in the heart of an area devoted to the murdered civil rights leader, near his birthplace, his crypt and a center devoted to preserving his legacy.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, called placing the flags on church grounds a "terroristic threat."

"This act by a cowardly and misguided individual or individuals is provocative to say the least. It ought to get the attention not only of black people but of freedom-loving people," he said.

bbabo.Net