Brittany "Bree" Newsome, 30, from Charlotte, N.C., and Annie Caddell, 55, from Charleston, S.C., hail from different cities with similar names, but they couldn't be more different in background and perspective.
They share common ground in how the symbolic power of the Confederate flag has shaped their lives.
Dylann Roofs' racially-motivated murders of nine black parishioners of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in downtown Charleston during a bible study served as the catalyst for Newsome, an African-American social activist.
Noting his obsession with white supremacy and its association with the Confederate battle flag, she decided it was time for giving our country a closer look at this complicated symbol.
The baggage, sordid history and outright racism that comes wrapped in that flag had been largely ignored by white America, but not by Newsome, the black community nor people aware of its negative symbolism.
In early morning of June 30, Newsome and an assistant put their plan into action on the grounds of the South Carolina State House, where a Confederate battle flag had flown for some time.
She scaled up the 30-foot pole and was ordered to descend by policemen to which she replied, "In the name of Jesus, this flag has to come down. You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today."
Those words were likely directed to the generations past and present that venerate its questionable heritage.
Newsome calmly handed the flag to the authorities, was arrested, hand-cuffed and escorted away while she recited the 23rd Psalm.
Her act of civil disobedience was recorded and distributed throughout social media and the news, capturing the attention of people across America who were finally coming to terms with the dark allure of this symbol.
Not but a few miles from where the churchgoers were murdered lives Annie Caddell.
Several years ago, Caddell, who is white, moved to Brownsville, a historically black neighborhood in the suburbs of Charleston.
One of the first things on her to-do list was to string up a Confederate battle flag on a pole in her front yard along with a "No Trespassing" sign. Not the most neighborly thing to do, especially when you consider the majority of her neighbors are black.
Caddell, a card-carrying Republican with Tea Party sensibilities, insists she isn't racist, but is motivated by keeping her family history roots alive.
All the while, what was once a peaceful neighborhood now has a smoldering anger that's slowly rising in temperature. Blacks in the area have made every effort to get Caddell to keep her sentiments to herself rather than continually taunt them with her shameful flag.
They've marched and petitioned, got the NAACP involved, they even built high wooden fences on both sides of her home with the permission of her adjacent neighbors. She promptly flew her flag on a taller flagpole in a stupefying display of stubbornness and ignorance.
Many neighbors agree with her American right to fly any kind of flag she wants on her property, but can't understand why she would choose to display that particular one, given its legacy of slavery and the oppression of fellow Americans.
And therein lies the ignorance that would inflict daily insults and pain on the very neighbors who would otherwise have welcomed her with the same open arms that the nine dead in the church welcomed Dylann Roof with on that fateful day.
Bree Newsome and Annie Caddell.
Two women, two Confederate flags and two very different motivations.