Jesus returns with bird
Harrison Ayer protests a group raising the Confederate flag at the South Carolina Statehouse on July, 11, 2020 in Columbia, SC. Photos and words by Sean Rayford
In seventh grade Braxton Spivey got into an argument with his history teacher.
“I told him he was wrong — and I brought him eight books the next day that was totally contradictory from what he was teaching out of a government issued text book,” he says on Saturday afternoon after raising the confederate battle flag at the South Carolina Statehouse — five years since its removal from the grounds.
No longer in middle school, with a white beard and head of hair, the Flags of the South event organizer is still arguing about history. “It was the soldier's battle flag — no more no less. They were fighting a tyrannical government,” he says, “The war was not about slavery. I've done my research — that war was not about slavery.”
Braxton Spivey, center, helps raise a Confederate battle flag at the SC Statehouse July 11, 2020.
He says he has documentation that shows The South was trying to abolish slavery before the war ever broke out — and the reason protestors view the flag as a representation of racism and hate is because others have used it as a racist symbol.
Spivey is against any more monuments coming down and says his group seeks to preserve history — while stressing the sacrifices that were made to get them erected. “Women — children, wives had their bake sales. They knitted and sold crafts to come up with the money to pay for those monuments,” he says, “That was a lot of hard work, to come up with that kind of money to pay for that monument. And that’s how most of them were erected, from bake sales and their knitting crafts and most people don't realize that. A lotta hard work put into it back then.”
Protestors outnumbered flag supporters nearly 10-1.
When asked about the pandemic and mask wearing, he responds, “Let's talk about the flag being here. I'm not going to talk about the medical issues.”
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LISTEN: Protestors heckle Confederate flag supporters
EXCERPT: "Who you talkin' to? When you go home and play this live back — play your recording back — all you're going to hear is the voices of the people your ancestors oppressed. That's all you are going to hear in the background. You're not gonna hear your speeches. You’re not gonna hear none of that bullshit you talking. All you're going to hear is us."