Those in car sought in death of Confederate flag fan

JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi investigators said Thursday that they are trying to find people who might have been in a road confrontation just before a crash that killed a black man wearing a Confederate military hat.

Anthony Hervey, 49, of Oxford died Sunday when the Ford Explorer he was driving left a Mississippi highway and landed upside down. Investigators issued a statement asking for the public’s help in locating the occupants of a silver car who might have been in a confrontation with Hervey just before the crash.

The vehicle’s owner, Arlene Barnum of Stuart, Okla., survived. She was traveling in the passenger seat.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Barnum said she and Hervey both spoke at a Saturday event in support of a Confederate monument in Birmingham, Ala. Barnum, who is black, said she burned an NAACP membership card at the event.

She said that before the crash Sunday, Hervey sped up to avoid a silver car carrying four or five black men who appeared angry at him. Barnum couldn’t identify the type of car or give a license plate number.

Barnum said that on the ride home Sunday, Hervey was wearing a Confederate kepi, or military hat, when he stopped at a convenience store. Shortly after that, she said, the highway confrontation started between the people in the other car and Hervey.

Hervey was well- known in north Mississippi for his support of the Confederate battle flag and for the state flag that includes the emblem.

In Hervey’s 2006 book, Why I Wave the Confederate Flag, Written by a Black Man, he said the Civil War was not fought over slavery and that he was supporting black soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War.