Documentary reviews Confederate flag fight in Orangeburg

ORANGEBURG (AP) - South Carolina Public Television stations are showing a documentary on Sunday about how a Confederate flag flying outside an ice cream shop ruined a businessman's dream.

"Meltdown in Dixie" airs at 6 p.m. Sunday. It tells the story of Tommy Daras and his Edisto River Creamery in Orangeburg. At the edge of the restaurant is a tiny plot of land belonging to the Sons of Confederate Veterans just big enough for a flagpole and a Confederate flag.

Daras didn't think much about the flag at first. But after the racist massacre that killed nine people at a Charleston church, he decided he didn't want the flag at his business anymore.

But the Sons of Confederate Veterans refused to move it. The land was given to them by the previous owner, barbecue baron Maurice Bessinger, who was a white supremacist and kept literature at this restaurants saying slavery was not bad.

Daras fought the organization in court over zoning and other matters but did not win. The bad publicity from the flag eventually led him to close the restaurant, which remains vacant today.

The film was made by documentary filmmaker Emily Harrold from Orangeburg, It tells the story of the showdown through the words of the people involved and allows people watching it to come up with their own opinions.