The Democratic woman who wants to be the next governor of Georgia admitted Monday evening that she had burned the state flag at a protest when she was a college student.

A 1992 article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that has been circulating on social media had a picture of Stacey Abrams, then a student at Spelman College, burning the Georgia flag as part of a demonstration by students from Atlanta’s several historically black colleges.

The Abrams campaign defended the candidate’s actions in a Monday statement, quoted by the New York Times, that said she had engaged in a “permitted, peaceful protest against the Confederate emblem in the flag.”

At the time, the Georgia state flag featured the St. Andrews Cross-inspired Confederate battle symbol and was the subject of much criticism as racist. That symbol was mostly removed by Roy Barnes, the last Democrat to serve as Georgia’s governor, in 2001 and completely removed by 2004.

The statement also said Ms. Abrams was on the right side of history.

“During Stacey Abrams‘ college years, Georgia was at a crossroads, struggling with how to overcome racially divisive issues, including symbols of the Confederacy, the sharpest of which was the inclusion of the Confederate emblem in the Georgia state flag,” the statement said. “This conversation was sweeping across Georgia as numerous organizations, prominent leaders, and students engaged in the ultimately successful effort to change the flag.”

Ms. Abrams has called for removing a giant monument on Stone Mountain featuring granite carvings of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, citing its ties to the 1910s revival of the Ku Klux Klan.

She has accordingly been criticized by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, her Republican rival for the governorship. Mr. Kemp has said the state cannot “attempt to rewrite” the past and that he would protect Stone Mountain from “the radical left.”

Ms. Abrams and Mr. Kemp will face off in a debate Tuesday.

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