This morning, members of the S.C. Secessionist Party reportedly went to work on the Folly Road boat, painting two Confederate flags and message to promote a July event with the hashtag #DixieRising. Shortly after, local residents stopped by the boat and repainted it with the message “Hope Equality Love.”
[content-1]Undeterred, days before the two year anniversary of the Emanuel AME shooting, the group returned to the boat around 1 p.m. to repaint it with the symbol of the slave-owning Confederate States of America, which collapsed 152 years ago.
Chrys Blackstone, who initially painted over the flags this morning with Michelle Melton, said on Twitter “we don’t need more agitation. We need more positive messages and good vibes right now.”
Shortly after that message was painted over by the secessionists, Melton returned with a bag of painting supplies and in less than 30 minutes, the boat was painted with the hashtag ‘#lovewins’.
[embed-1]The Confederate flag and other symbols of the Civil War South came under closer scrutiny after an avowed white supremacist who idolized the Confederate flag killed nine people at Emanuel AME Church on June 17, 2015. The man, Dylann Roof, said he went to the church to kill black people and start a race war. Earlier this year, he received a death sentence and later plead guilty to state charges.
After Emanuel, an overwhelming majority of S.C. legislators voted to remove the flag from the capitol grounds, which flew on the Statehouse dome from 1961—2000, when it was moved alongside a Civil War monument in front of the building.
[content-2]The group that said it painted the Folly Road boat today is the same group which protested a campus visit by Bree Newsome, the activist who climbed the flagpole in front of the Statehouse and tore down the rebel flag before it was officially removed. The group has also raised massive Confederate flags at public events like Charleston Wine+Food Festival and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in Greenville.
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