83-year-old Leo Twiggs is an artist who grew up in South Carolina during the time of segregation. As CBS News reports, he views life as a series of crossings. This view of life has brought him to paint hundreds of Confederate flags over the past four decades.

His reasoning for painting the controversial symbol?  He thinks "the South is full of contradictions. We've got Southern hospitality and then we have segregation, and they seem at opposite ends." The flag has notoriously been a symbol of the KKK as well as a segregated South, both things Twiggs has viewed and knows very well. 

"You couldn't go to any of the white schools," Twiggs said. "I went to NYU because at the time the state would pay your way to another university … Paid me to go away."

In 1970, he became the first black student to earn a doctor of arts at the University of Georgia. And has gone on to become one of the South's most acclaimed artists. His paintings of the Confederate flag represent his journey and the South's.

"I make it a tattered and worn relic of the past that should be in a museum and yet we see it flying around as if the war is still going on … alive and present," Twiggs said.

It wasn't until Dylan Roof's bloody massacre at Mother Emmanuel Church that the flag was taken down from the South Carolina Capitol.

"I call it our finest moment," Twiggs said. "Mother Emmanuel is not an isolated incident. It is part of the African American story. It is the stony road we trod. I hope these flags create an atmosphere for conversation … what can I do?"

How do you think that Leo Twiggs choice to paint flags measures up to what is going on in Charlottesville? Share your thoughts below!