The Confederate flag flies on the grounds of South Carolina State House.
A woman scaled a flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina State House to remove the Confederate flag Saturday, US media said, amid fierce debate about the racially charged symbol.
Police arrested the woman, who is black, as soon as she came down from the 30 foot (nine meter) pole, and the flag was restored to its original position about an hour later, the local Post and Courier newspaper said.
Pictures on social media showed a woman, named by online and by media as Bree Newsome, being escorted by a policeman, her hands behind her back.
#FreeBree was trending on Twitter.
There has been a growing clamor for the flag -- branded "a reminder of systemic oppression and racist subjugation" by President Barack Obama on Friday -- to be removed from the grounds of the state house in Columbia.
Once flown by the rebel army of the slave-owning South, the confederate flag is seen by some as a symbol of regional heritage, but by many more as an ugly reminder of racism's cruel legacy.
Impassioned debate about the flag was sparked by the mass shooting of nine black worshippers last week in Charleston, also in South Carolina.
The white alleged supremacist gunman, Dylann Roof, 21, later appeared in disturbing photos online with the flag.
In the wake of the attack, many government bodies and private firms have moved to take the flag from view, and several politicians have spoken out against its use. Several major retailers have stopped selling flag merchandise.
As well as stirring debate about America's racial divide, the Charleston massacre also fed the frustration felt by many at the country's failure to control its gun culture.