FOLLY BEACH — Two days before the anniversary of the deadly hate crime at Emanuel AME Church, a battle for the freshest coat of paint on the landmark Folly Boat was waged by Confederate flag supporters and those offended by their message.
Two days before the second anniversary of the Emanuel AME Church shooting, the Folly Boat is painted Thursday morning with two Confederate battle flags and a message memorializing Civil War casualities. Andrew Knapp/Staff
The South Carolina Secessionist Party on Thursday first emblazoned the defunct vessel with the likeness of two battle flags along with words memorializing Civil War casualties and marking the upcoming anniversary of the banner's removal from Statehouse grounds.
Within hours, residents had covered the display with the words, "Hope, equality, love."
Residents on Thursday painted over Confederate flags on the Folly Beach with a different message. Andrew Knapp/Staff
The flags returned a short time later, only to be replaced with "Love wins."
The competing artistic volleys were expected to continue. Both sides were keeping an eye on the boat and springing into action once their messages got covered.
Secessionist Party leader James Bessenger said he turned to painting the boat after Charleston officials banned his group from waving the banner at city parking garages. Its members also hoisted the flag earlier this year on Summerville overpasses.
The group "will probably make this a regular thing," he said. "We had to figure something out after the mayor decided to go despot on the parking garages."
Before his June 17, 2015, mass shooting at the Charleston church, Dylann Roof photographed himself waving the Confederate flag as a symbol of his white supremacist beliefs. Roof now awaits execution for killing nine black worshippers.
After the shootings, state lawmakers voted to remove the flag from Capitol grounds. To mark the two years that have passed since then, Bessenger's group plans to raise the banner at the Statehouse on July 10 and "thumb our nose to those who would erase our history."
His message on the boat touting the event elicited a mixed response from passersby.
Local resident Peyton Wilson stopped with her mother to survey the scene.
"It's not heritage," she said. "It's a symbol for hate. ... I hope people don't think it represents Charleston."
Teresa Stancil-Brown of James Island snapped photos with her cellphone. She said she comes from a racially diverse family and was close to Ethel Lance, one of the shooting victims.
But the boat display, she said, is simply a nod to her past and means no disrespect to the victims. Roof didn't know what the flag meant, she insisted.
"We find what he did just as horrible as anybody else does," she said. "But we're not going to give up respecting our family. They can fight us all they want."
After Chrys Blackstone saw photos of the boat on social media, he bought a gallon of white paint at Sherwin-Williams and a brush.
He got to work.
The boat, he said, had espoused a "wrong ideal."
Chrys Blackstone paints over a Confederate battle flag on the Folly Boat on Thursday, two days shy of the Emanuel AME Church shooting. Andrew Knapp/Staff
"What a wonderful place we have where somebody can come and put this up," he said, "and somebody can come right behind them and take it down."
Armed with brushes, rollers and spray-paint, Michelle Melton joined in and helped form the words that replaced the flags.
"It's nice to have messages that are positive," she said, "and show equality and inclusiveness rather than separation and division."
But soon, Bessenger repainted the banners and words that saluted 260,000 Southerners who died during the Civil War.
Earlier in the day, Jason Mike had anticipated this. He stood on the roadside, its gravel specked with a rainbow of dried paint. He respected the right of both sides to express their views, he said.
"But if anybody loses sleep over this, come on," he said. "Wake up."
He prepared a picture of the boat to post on Facebook and typed a caption.
"Let the drama begin," he wrote.