Brittany Ann Byuarm Newsome Bass[1] (born May 13, 1985)[2] is an American filmmaker, activist and speaker from Charlotte, North Carolina.

She is best known for her act of civil disobedience on June 27, 2015, when she was arrested for removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state house grounds in the aftermath of the Charleston church shooting.

[4] Newsome said that her experience as a black woman working in the horror and sci-fi film genres inspired her to become an activist.

Speaking as part of a panel at Spelman College in 2014, she said: "The space that exists for many of us, as a young black girl, is so extremely limited so that you really can't go very far without being an activist, without being in defiance of something.

[9] On June 27, 2015, she was arrested for taking down the Confederate battle flag that was displayed on the grounds of the South Carolina State House[10][11] in direct action.

[18] NAACP chapter president Reverend William Barber II applauded Newsome's action, comparing it to those of Rosa Parks and other icons of the Civil Rights Movement.

Not long ago, I had watched the beginning of Selma, the reenactment of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and had shuddered at the horrors of history.

[31] As a presidential candidate speaking at a Martin Luther King Day 2016 celebration in Charleston, Hillary Clinton credited Newsome for taking the matter into her own hands by "shimmying up that flagpole" as a step in the process.

"[32] In February 2016, Newsome told Ebony magazine that she had been motivated in part by her ancestors having been enslaved and subjected to racial terrorism in South Carolina.

She has given interviews to newspapers and magazines such as The Crisis, Vox, and Marie Claire, made television appearances, and given public speeches at colleges and other venues.

[34] Following the deadly attack during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 17, 2017, Newsome's op-ed piece and video commentary appeared in The Washington Post.

[38][39] Newsome defended Saira Rao's argument that Zionist doctors and nurses pose a threat to Black and Muslim patients.