Mississippi Highway Patrol is investigating a car crash that killed a black Confederate supporter believed to have been caused by another vehicle after a rally to save the Linn Park Confederate Monument in Birmingham, Alabama.

Confederate supporters Anthony Hervey, far left, and Arlene Barnum, second from right, were reportedly run off the road in a crash that killed Hervey Sunday morning.
Confederate supporters Anthony Hervey, far left, and Arlene Barnum, second from right, were reportedly run off the road in a crash that killed Hervey Sunday morning.

Anthony Hervey, 49, attended the multi-racial rally Saturday with another black Confederate supporter and U.S. Army veteran, Arlene Barnum, and the two were returning home on Highway 6 around 11:20 a.m. Sunday when they were allegedly run off the road near Oxford, Mississippi, the McAlister News-Capital reports.

“I didn’t know him really,” Barnum said of Hervey. “I gave him a ride to the rally.”

The two decided to attend the rally together after Birmingham city officials recently voted to remove the memorial from Linn Park.

Barnum said she let Hervey drive when they got closer to his home, and a silver vehicle with four or five young black men pulled alongside them yelling. Hervey yelled back before the silver vehicle forced them off the road, Barnum told CBS News.

“It spun like crazy and we flipped, flipped, flipped. It was awful,” she said.

Barnum posted Facebook messages immediately before and after the crash, YellowHammerNews.com reports.

“Help .. They are after us. My vehicle inside down,” Barnum posted. “Anthony Hervy (sic) pinned in ., gas leaking.”

Barnum told the media that her vehicle, a 2005 Ford Explorer, did not display any Confederate symbols, and she was unsure if the two had been followed from Birmingham.

Both Hervey and Barnum are black and well-known supporters of their Confederate heritage. At the Saturday rally, Barnum reportedly burned her lifetime NAACP membership card, images of which were posted online.

“Barnum’s Twitter feed is full of pro-Confederate tweets, and she makes no apologies for her stand. One picture mocks the NAACP while changing the meaning of the acronym to ‘National Association for the Awakening of Confederate Patriots’ and links to a Facebook page with the same name,” the Examiner reports.

Hervey donned a Purple Heart to Saturday’s rally, and was known in Mississippi for wearing Confederate regalia and protesting against efforts to change the state’s flag.

“He said he dressed in Rebel soldier garb to honor blacks who served with the Confederacy during the Civil War. He was often seen often wearing the Confederate uniform and waving a Rebel flag on the Oxford square,” CBS News reports.

“In an interview with the Associated Press in 2001 after a new state flag design was defeated, Hervey said Mississippians’ support of the flag with a Confederate battle emblem in the corner is akin to ‘standing up for home.’”

“This is not racism. This is my heritage,” he said at the time.

Save Our South spokesman Jonathan Barbee, who help organize Saturday’s rally, told the Examiner about 500 people attended the event, which was sponsored by the Alabama Constitutional Conservatives and Save Our South.

“According to Barbee, there were several African-American guest speakers and dozens of African-Americans attended the event along with Confederate heritage organizations. The rally was intended to bring awareness to Southern culture and preserve history through reaching across racial lines, he added,” according to the Examiner.

Ginger Barbee, an attorney for the event sponsors, issued a statement to the Examiner late Sunday that blamed city officials for the deadly wreck.

“I want the Birmingham Parks and Recreations board to know that they are ultimately responsible for this tragedy,” she wrote. “If they had not voted to remove the monument, this young, heroic black man would still be alive. Thy have caused so much racial division in a great city which has had very few racial issues since the Civil Rights movement.

“Anthony Hervey gave his life for something he believed in, reaching across racial lines to preserve history and protect our Constitutional rights. He was a veteran and a Purple Heart recipient. Our prayers go out to his family during this time,” Barbee continued. “He will be remembered.”

Barnum posted a video to Facebook Sunday to dispel rumors she also perished in the wreck.

“I didn’t die in an automobile accident … I was the one who survived it,” she said. “I am at the Mississippi Baptist North Hospital.”

Mississippi Highway Patrol confirmed the crash, but spokesman Johnny Poulos told CBSnews officials would not discuss details until accident reconstruction experts fully investigate the evidence.