♪ upbeat opening music ♪ Hello, I'm Beryl Dakers and this is Palmetto Scene .

Last summer artist John Sims brought his exhibit Afro Dixia, a Righteous Confiscation to Columbia's Gallery 701, since his work addresses the connection between blackness, the Confederate flag, and the complex history of the American South.

>> So it was in this space, on these steps, this dome above here in Columbia, that inspired me to face the Confederate flag head on.

[woman singing "Dixie's Land"] [thunder and rain] ♪ Look away... Look away, Look away, Dixie Land.

♪ >> The project started, germinated over 20 years ago.

It started with me being very concerned about the activism and the political tension around the Confederate flag being on the dome of the South Carolina State House.

It was in the late 90's, and there was a lot of protest around that.

And I actually remember seeing on TV, this huge Confederate flag on the steps.

It was huge, all the way across.

A lot of white folks chanting for them to keep the flag, heritage not hate, things like that.

And I remember thinking, I just cannot believe that this Confederate flag is flying on the capital of the State House.

What can I do?

What can an artist do, an activist?

How can I be a part of this conversation?

And that's when I started to sort of take the Confederate flag and make a little bumper sticker and do it in black, red and green, the colors of Black nationalism and liberation.

And then after that, I did a real flag, the one you see behind me, the very first one, the square one, the battle flag: black, red, green.

They showed that in a gallery, DFN Gallery in New York and Soho, and that was really the beginning.

As I went from this bumper sticker to this battle flag, I expanded on this notion of recoloration: This idea of taking the Confederate flag and recoloring it.

And also, in some ways, occupying that space, black, red, green, but now it's black on black on black, white on white on white, black and white, playing with colors, but also playing with the metaphor of - taking over the metaphor of recycling, occupying, confiscating like all these ideas started to germinate.

[woman singing "Dixie's Land"] ♪ I wish I was in the land of cotton ♪ ♪ Old times there are not forgotten ♪ >> But it was an incident in Harlem that became very pivotal for me.

This brother from Harlem was walking by the exhibition space and saw one of my recolored Confederate flags hanging out on... on a pole.

He was really upset.

It was like, he didn't care if the colors were different, it's still the Confederate flag, how dare we bring this to Harlem, with all the police issues and that kind of thing.

My work, it didn't speak, so it made me dig deeper: how to make the work much more impactful, and to kind of put my politics about the work on the forefront of the presentation.

So when I got invited to do a show in Gettysburg, I created a new piece called "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag."

And that way provided a political vector or an orientation where my politics were, whereas just doing a black, red, and green Confederate flag, they're not sure whether I'm pro Confederate or I'm trying to mediate some sort of history or, or if I'm poking fun.

But this piece, the idea was to hang the flag, Confederate flag, from a 13 foot gallows.

The press release went out, which was "Artist Lynches Confederate Flag" which is very inflammatory.

We got a lot of pushback from that.

I got like 7000 emails right after that.

And...

I was very amazed at how powerful the Sons of Confederate Veterans were.

They threatened to boycott Gettysburg, because in Gettysburg they spend lots of, you know, the reenactments, their merch, Confederate flags everywhere.

And so here I'm in the space right by Gettysburg College to do the show.

The idea is to have the gallows outdoors for three and a half weeks.

And so that show was compromised.

And I was asked to bring the piece indoors.

But I didn't want to cancel the show, so I ended up doing a smaller version.

And then I boycotted my own show.

[woman singing "Dixie's Land"] ♪ Look away ♪ ♪ Look away...Look away, Dixie Land ♪ And so the Confederate flag, particularly for black folks and activists who understand the dynamics of the of the Civil War look at the flag in its most incredible dynamic way to representing the racist Confederate Constitution.

And then also in the early 1900s, the the the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, and then segregationists of the '40s and '50s.

And then the pushback in the '80s is inflammatory, it's disrespectful, it abrogates any kind of capacity to have a real conversation about how we can coexist in a space with such an incredible, dynamic and painful history.

Hanging the flag became a powerful metaphor for bringing this symbol and all it represents including the Confederate state of mind, to a space of reckoning and justice.

[woman singing "Dixie's Land"] Ole William was a gay deceiver; ♪ Look away, Look away, Look away, Dixie Land.

♪ And so to be able to attack the symbol, right, which is so important for people, opens up the space for real emotional conversation.

The hanging sets me up for the burial, for the funeral.

2015 was 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.

So what I wanted to do was a 13 state, Confederate flag funeral burial.

<News Anchor> Setting fire to a Confederate flag right here in Nashville, part of a series of simultaneous protests that are known as "13 Flag Funeral."

This is a Memorial Day, but three weeks later, that's when we had the Charleston 9.

And then when Dylann Roof was connected to white supremacy and the Confederate flag, that's when the discussion about the Confederate flag takes this very frontal powerful space: after nine people are murdered in a church.

So is that what it takes to bring the flag down in South Carolina?

Certainly not an art project.

It takes critical loss and death.

And so we see that when you go a few more years later with George Floyd.

Again, we watch in real time, a man being murdered before our very eyes.

And then that moves to a space of, hey, let's take down Confederate monuments.

Couldn't have that conversation in a real way.

Right?

It becomes at the expense of Black Lives, Black blood, Black spirits.

And this is very, very problematic, because black people should not be paying for the end results of these kinds of discussions.

We should not have to pay for that.

So in some ways, it's not just the Confederate flag that's indicted.

It's the whole society that's indicted that allows this to happen or only move when there's critical loss and death.

Same thing with police brutality, someone has to die, get shot, killed in the bedroom, in their car minding their own business, then we want to do a police review.

It's a little late for that.

[woman protesting] It's not about hate!

It's about us joining together in unity!

>> Right, the hanging of the Confederate flags, the burning, hence the urns, the black urns representing the black body receptacle of the kind of actions of white supremacy, the spirit of the Confederate state of mind, the kinds of just injustice this whole country was founded on, right?

So Black Body embraces that and still creates incredible things from that energy.

So out comes these black, red and green Confederate flags.

[woman singing Dixie's Land] ♪ Dixie Land, whar' I was born in, ♪ ♪ Early on one frosty mornin'... ♪ I think artists and the artwork, which can change public opinion, resonate with the public spaces that start those kinds of conversations which can lead to policy change, can lead to cultural change, the art is very, very important.

So that there can be a new understanding of what Southern heritage is, American heritage is, and that the importance and centrality of the African American experience as descendants of African slaves is so central to American reality, past, present, and future.

And it's very important for black folks to understand that, and use that as cultural capital and equity in terms of how they move through this thing called the American experience.

But I want to have the conversations not just here in these spaces.

And that's why having the opportunity to take the world's largest Afro Confederate flag to the steps of the South Carolina State House and have it out there, you know, in a similar position as the very first one I saw 20 years ago, some of these changes have moved forward, and we are making changes, and we need to occupy the spaces, and I think that's really what I want to get across with the work.

It's about black folks occupying, confiscating the symbols and language and spaces that have supported and framed parts of our oppression and supports the white supremacist context that shapes our reality.

And I think it's important to stand up to that, push back against that, and take those spaces.

♪ In 2018, SCETV produced Charlie's Place, a regional Emmy award winning documentary about an historic Black nightclub in Myrtle Beach.

At that time, a group of citizens was working with the city to renovate the club and the adjoining motel.

Now the first phase of those renovations is complete.

So travel with us to Myrtle Beach for a peek at the new Charlie's Place.

<Narrator> They say music brings people together.

It certainly did at Charlie's Place in the African American Carver Street neighborhood of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina during segregation.

The summer of 1950 was not especially hot for South Carolina.

But racial tensions across the state were heating up, and Charlie's Place was about to become a target.

On August 26, the Association of Carolina Klans headed for Myrtle Beach.

♪ All she wants to do is rock.

♪ Charlie's Place was full of customers when the Klan drove by.

Charlie Fitzgerald called the police warning that there would be trouble if they came back.

Around midnight the Klan returned.

>> The Klan kind of took that as you can't tell the damn Klan not to come back.

<gunshots> >> My brother and I was at the house across the street.

We was under the porch laying on our belly looking at people running.

They were shooting and screaming and calling names and bullets flying everywhere.

<Narrator> A few people were injured and one person, a Klansmen was gravely wounded.

Under his robe, he wore a policeman's uniform.

Charlie Fitzgerald stood his ground.

But the mob overwhelmed him and threw him in the trunk of a car.

>> They took him to a deserted area somewhere, tied him to a tree and beat him badly.

[baseball bat hitting hand palm] thwack ...thwack And they marked him.

They marked him by snipping the lobes of his ears off.

<Narrator> Charlie Fitzgerald recovered.

He returned to Carver Street and reopened his club.

But he died of cancer five years later.

Sarah Fitzgerald operated the club until 1965 when it finally closed.

Today, Carver Street is very different from the old days.

Charlie's Place is gone.

Although a portion of the Fitzgerald's motel and home remains.

A group of Myrtle Beach citizens and the city are working together to develop the property into a catalyst for economic development of a Carver Street community.

>> We're going to restore this building.

So, we'll have one room for the 40s.

The front of the building will have a plate glass window, kind of like a department store so you can see it even at night as you come by.

We'll take another room 1950's same idea, but 1950s.

Stage will be over there and it'll be facing here.

This will be the picnic area, the concert area, you've got vendors -- a row going up toward Carver Street where vendors can set up their booths.

This structure here was the home of Sarah and Charlie Fitzgerald.

We're going to renovate it too, with the help of the city.

We're going to have a large meeting room.

We're going to have education facilities for children and old folk.

We're going to use it for many purposes, but everything's going to be themed around Charlie's Place, the heyday of Charlie's Place.

♪ >> Right now we are coming off of our phase two to completion for the Charlie's Place project.

Now we are in the phase of curating the site, the inside, the museums in the Green Book room.

We have also started moving in our business tenants that was always in the works early on.

Right now, we're in the early stages where the community is now getting abreast to the completion.

A lot of people are having an interest in what's happening.

So now we are promoting the site to be available to community members for rental services, such as our small meeting spaces, our outdoor area that we have, and our large meeting spaces.

So today is a celebration of life for Mr. Herbert Riley, who was one of the visionaries for the project along with other community members.

Unfortunately, he's not here today to see the fruits of his labor and his passion for the project.

But community members, his wife, Miss Mary Riley, and those of his organization, Carver Street Renaissance, Economic Renaissance are here to celebrate his contributions to not only his city, but to his neighborhood.

<Mary Riley> This was Herbert's vision, because even in the years prior to this, they did this at Charlie's.

Charlie's has always been the place where people came together and had fun and did funlike things.

I'm just so happy that everybody's here today.

they supported us.

We've just got a great group of people working with us.

Hopefully, we will get everything accomplished that we set out to do.

It's just phenomenal, it really is.

It's a great feeling.

<woman speaking> The city has been involved since day one.

And that is because of Herbert and Mary Riley's passion and their vision for Charlie's Place.

If they had not followed, - I say 'hunted down' - City Council at the budget retreat years ago, who knows what would have happened to Charlie's place.

The fact that they were steadfast and resolute in what they wanted is why we're here today.

This is one of the largest financial projects that the city has ever taken on in any given neighborhood.

That is just how important this is.

Myrtle Beach is a young city.

We don't have a lot of history here.

But the history that we have is very rich, especially in our Black community.

And we need to tell these stories, if we don't preserve the history, if we don't teach our young people what it's about, then generations to come will not know what Myrtle Beach was founded on.

And that is why this is so important.

It's a part of preserving that rich history that we have, for generations.

I think we have to take the initiative.

And whether that means starting a youth council, to hear the young people and make them a part of the events.

I was telling someone earlier, this is a place we need to have events all the time, not just today.

But we need to have events for our youth.

And if we make them a part of planning those events, they will come.

They're not going to come if I plan it.

But if they have a voice in what those events are, they will come out.

And we need to share the history with them so that they appreciate it and honor it, but that they can tell those stories later on.

<Mary Riley> They're more educated now.

You know, we're encouraging them to go to school and do things and get out and just support one another.

So we're hoping that this idea would encourage them to... come back home and build.

The kids from this community, they graduate, they go to college, and they go other places to get employment.

We'd love to see some of them come back here with great ideas and build up our own community.

♪ <Beryl> It's going on two years now, and we're still learning how to adjust to life in the pandemic.

In our homes, our jobs, our business and education communities, every aspect of life as we knew it has changed, including the way we worship.

In this next segment, we'll take a look back with SCETV's Holly Bounds-Jackson, as she shows us how pastoring and the worship experience has changed.

♪ <Holly Narrating> As people are forced to stay put, they're finding ways to come together like never before.

First Baptist Church of Hartsville is one of hundreds across the state, stepping out of the norm to continue their ministry through worship and fellowship.

>> We've definitely been learning as we go.

We've been forced to...

I've been forced to learn how to do social media.

I've kind of dabbled in Facebook and stuff for years, but I've never really taken it seriously.

And this pandemic and quarantine has definitely pushed me in that direction.

<Holly> Social media is the saving grace through this, an outlet to reach the congregation at anytime, anywhere.

♪ Pastor Steve Miller converted his living room into a worship hall, and recruited his kids to help continue leading in a way that feels like their normal Sunday at Team Church in Kershaw.

>> Once we started putting the words on the screen then I needed to do a little bit better job of capturing the audio.

So that led to needing the mixer board, using the microphones from church, and so it got a little complex, but our kids have learned how to use these things and we also have used this as an opportunity to be mission minded with them.

♪ <Holly> Brookland Baptist in Columbia is still using their sanctuary through the pandemic, but only those involved in recording and worship leading are allowed in.

And getting in the door is a process these days, one they take seriously.

>> I thought it was important for those who needed to be here, to be safe in the midst of everything that's going on with the COVID-19.

So what we decided to do is to make sure before everybody enters the sanctuary is to take their temperatures and if they have a high temperature then they can't enter the sanctuary.

Then they have to go home, and then, you know, we make the adjustments that we need to.

Like everyone, it's about finding a new normal and making it work.

>> For us, more of the adjustment's been kind of on the care part.

How do we still love people, connect people to each other, help them grow in their faith even though they're not coming to church.

And so we've tried to make that accessible.

We try to make it real.

We try to be as close to people as we can without being close to them.

It's going well.

I think it's a great opportunity for the church because we have opportunities we didn't have years and years ago.

We're trying to utilize everything we can.

>> That attempt to connect has been very important for us.

Connection is such an important part of what it means to be a church family, of what it means to be a community of faith.

And so we have tried to remain connected.

<Holly> Many churches have members who are not plugged in on social media.

So they're finding ways to meet their needs too.

>> We're writing encouraging notes.

We're making phone calls or sending text messages.

We're working hard to help everyone remember that God is with us and we are still together as a community.

Pastor Rob Brazzell in Lydia, South Carolina created a drive-in church after feedback from his congregation that they craved more than a message on a screen.

So the first two Sundays, we did Facebook videos, and then, 100% honesty, our church members, they missed being together.

They wanted to meet on the church grounds.

We wanted to find a way to worship together in a safe environment but also be as close as possible.

And so we moved into the drive-in church.

And then for those who did not want to get out of the car, they could actually keep the door shut, the windows rolled up, and they can tune in on a particular radio station that was transmitting our service, so they could listen in their car.

>> This Saturday we're going to be giving away 500 bags of cereal.

<Holly> And they're finding unique ways to be the church, getting creative in their outreach, not letting restrictions slow the mission.

>> And now we're able to take our outreach even further by collecting groceries in the neighborhoods in a safe distance apart from people.

So in short, Venture hasn't slowed down because of COVID-19.

We've seen more opportunity because of this and we actually appreciate the opportunity to share our story.

<Holly> For some it's admittedly a time of stepping outside their comfort zone.

>> When we learned that we could no longer gather together for [indiscernible] worship, I was disturbed greatly.

One of the reasons I was disturbed was because our church worship had never been live streamed before.

I still got a lot of old timey ways in me and I had not yet come into the 21st century of social media and information technology as I'm becoming now.

So I had some anxieties about it.

I've come to learn that there are persons whom I have met in my preaching travels across the country who join us for worship, that's exciting to me after 49 years, I'm experiencing something that's brand new that brings greater glory to our God.

<Holly> Connecting, serving, reaching out from afar as the way to come together, gets tougher to bear.

>> May the Lord watch between me and thee, while we're absent, one from another, in Jesus' name.

God bless you.

For South Carolina ETV I'm Holly Jackson.

♪ <Beryl> For more stories about our state and more details on those stories you've just seen, please visit our website at PalmettoScene.org, and, of course, don't forget to follow us on social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

It's @SCETV #PalmettoScene For all of us here at SCETV and Palmetto Scene , I'm Beryl Dakers.

Stay well, and thanks for watching!

♪