Down in Dixie — Peggy Peattie Photography

Down in Dixie is a project shot on b/w film in South Carolina investigating the legacy of “heritage or hate” in relation to the confederate flag. A grant from the Alexia Foundation for World Peace and Cultural Understanding allowed me to spend six months, mostly sleeping on a couch in the home of Tina McNeil in John’s Island, driving back and forth between Charleston, S.C. and Athens, Ohio where I was a graduate student, when I needed to soup film. I learned there were a few distinct categories under which either heritage or hate had deep roots. First there were the ghosts of ancestors who died for their beliefs. Then there was religion, and how it was tailored to comfort or validate. The land not only produced a legacy of cotton, rice and tobacco but represented survival for newly freed slaves. I used the umbrella term ‘culture’ to encompass rituals and traditions that are part and parcel of the social fabric including political figures like Sen Strom Thurmond and Rep. James Clyburn, the Gullah culture and the KKK.

Boys in the Hood

Flag supporters rally on the steps of the state house in Columbia, South Carolina.

Yes They Did

A woman in Laurens, SC holds a photo of her uncle who was lynched.

Stare Down

Two women participating in a confederate flag support rally glare at a man walking home from work across the state house grounds in South Carolina.

Brown vs. Board of Education

A young boy rides to school as the sun rises over the fields in Clarendon County, S.C., which was one of the counties represented in the original Brown vs. Board of Education suit argued by then-lawyer Thurgood Marshall seeking access to busing for Black children. The boy’s mother is driving the bus; she herself was not allowed to ride the bus.

Emancipation Proclamation

On the actual site where President Lincoln's representative first read the Emancipation Proclamation to a gathered crowd of enslaved people in Beaufort, SC, reenactors perform the scene annually on January 1.

This Land is My Land

Tobacco farmers hunt deer in their fields, on the land where their grandfathers planted crops. Many feel the heritage of the South doesn't mean slavery, it means living the legacy of a long line of farmers.

Confederate Butt

An inebriated NASCAR fan climbs atop his RV at 8 a.m. to get a good view of the race scheduled to start at 1 p.m. at Darlington Raceway.

Land Legacy

A descendant of slaves maintains a cabin on the marsh that is now owned by her family. Her grandparents worked this land as slaves.

Truck Farming

Chris Ramsey drives a truck through the crops he planted on the 80 acres his grandparents left to him and four siblings on John’s Island.

Father and Son

John Wienges and son help their crew collect stray cotton and pack it into the picker during a day’s harvest.

Strom and Santa

Strom Thurmond, grand marshall for the parade at the Chitlin’ Strut in Salley, S.C. works the crowd with Santa. The senior senator passed away June 2003 at the age of 100.

Old Camp Meeting

Children gather on the porch at St. Paul Campground where 130-year-old buildings still stand, tucked away in the woods near Harleyville, S.C. to share their harvests. Descendants of the original families still gather to keep the legacy alive.

Freedom of the Mind

Children at the Freedom School in Bennettsville, S.C. where Marion Wright Edelman created the schools to promote self-esteem for Black children play a pick-up game of chess during recess.

Exclusive White Societies

A doorman holds an umbrella over a senior arriving member of the Ladies Benevolent Society Tea in Charleston. Societies are members only.

Making it Real

Black re-enactors stare down confederate soldiers keep the legacy of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment alive. The regiment bravely assaulted Battery Wagner in Charleston Harbor.