Ole Miss Takes Another Step to Sever Its Ties to Its Racist Past

Several years ago the University of Mississippi had banned the flying of Confederate flags at football games. Six years ago Colonel Reb, the university mascot who has the appearance of a plantation owner, was banned from walking the sidelines at football games.

Now the university has shortened one of its traditional fight songs played before every home football game. The song, “From Dixie With Love,” was shortened to exclude a stanza after which the football crowd responded with the chant, “The South will rise again.”

When the new, shorter version of the fight song was played for the first time this season, many fans in attendance continued to chant the old refrain. University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones then stated that if the fans continued using the chant, he would not allow the song to be played at football games.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.