re: Ole Miss: Please start playing 'From Dixie With Love' again

Or not enough like an Ole Miss uniform.

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This rational post is a rarity on tRant and is refreshing.

The attraction of nuts still continues in modern times. For example the klan idiots from around the region with no ties to OM converging on our campus a few years ago that our student body shouted down and ran off. Remember the Auburn hat wearing Klansmen as an example? These folks have no association with OM but we draw them like flies because of previously having these symbols and then taking them down.

Simpletons on tRant that are probably some of the very same posters that blast us for ridding ourselves of these symbols are the very same ones that can't logically connect that the klan was on our campus because they were pissed for us ridding ourselves of these symbols. "But but...you had the Klan on your campus you racists" these idiots would say. You know who you are. This thread is a perfect time to call these DA's out.

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Honestly, OM is in a tough position because as a university you have to go above and beyond others to discourage the racist idiots that your past attracts. It's always surprised me that Alabama doesn't suffer the same rep as OM given the infamous School House Steps speech by Wallace and all the other horrible violence that happened in AL during that time frame.

But the 1962 Battle of Oxford ended in bloodshed and death and took place on campus it's hard for OM to escape the love racists will always have for it. That event captured the American imagination the way few other Civil Rights incidents did. Hell, Bob Dylan even wrote Oxford Town because of it.

The Upper South (UK, UT, and Vandy) had their issues, mostly just tension or disrespect, but integration was a walk in the park for them compared to the Deep South schools because the history of the Upper South is so different from the Deep South. Because of all that, if the klan showed up at those schools it wouldn't have the same kind of deep impact on us.

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Supposedly, that's why you don't see the all gray unis anymore in football. Looked too much like a confederate uniform.

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Adidas and Nike have promoted the frick out of gray unis with tons of schools now having them so I doubt you'd get even the slightest association with it now.

Frankly, I think we wear our alt gray too much and now that it's become so popular with many teams having them I'd be fine with us mothballing them entirely. Of course, I favor O&W but the popularity of gray alts for every team gives me ammo.

The Klan of today wishes it had 1/10th the power that some of you assign to it. It will always be boogeyman numero uno even as its numbers continue to dwindle.

I would wager in some respects the opponents of Southern symbols took some joy in seeing the Klan protesting as it allowed them to use that broad brush there and elsewhere.

To be fair, nothing anyone can say now nor in the future will change my reverence for symbols of the old South. I'm not some confrontational redneck, but I believe what I believe.

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and assassinated MLK in TN as a point of reference to the disdain MS

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Memphis is so far away it would be hard to associate it with UT but easy to associate it with the state as a whole.

It's weird MLK was partially trained (along with Rosa Parks and a metric ton of Civil Rights leaders) in non-violence and other things at the Highlander Center in East, TN. Parks specifically trained there just before she refused to give up her seat. And when things got really dangerous it was the only place all the major Civil Rights leaders felt they could safely meet face to face. Yet on the other side of the state you have total mayhem in terms of civil rights but there's a reason we're called the "Three States of Tennessee" (our road signs used to tell you that you were now entering the three states of TN instead of "Welcome to Tennessee" until Gov Ned McWherter finally had them changed sometime in the late 80s early 90s -- he hated the concept). Middle and West, TN have always been at odds with East, TN although these days that's changed a lot.

I think another oddity is that it's often forgotten that King was there to fight for the rights of workers and had moved into his War on Poverty/Anti-Vietnam phase.

All that said, you're of course right. No state has a clean history in terms of race relations -- not even the rest of the country.

Both points interesting. Of course being OM I know the vast difference of east and west TN. Honestly thought about that when I lumped the whole of TN together but didn't want to get too long and like you said still we are all culpable but that's a feather in the cap. Didn't know about middle. Prob why middle TN plays both east and west schools like their Super Bowl.

Also educated me on the training of the the civil rights leaders in east TN. Very odd and interesting.

It's honestly a feat that the confederacy was able to band together, agree on things as well as they did, and organize a formidable army across a pretty big unconnected region considering the states rights mindset and almost defeat the North getting as close as 20 miles from the northern capital.

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The Klan of today wishes it had 1/10th the power that some of you assign to it. It will always be boogeyman numero uno even as its numbers continue to dwindle.

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The Klan doesn't really exist anymore. Now it is basically a tradition of being an FBI informant lovingly passed down from father to son.

Branches pop up, branches go.

Aside from the 60's the only times the Klan has really been a presence was when formed by Nathan Bedford Forrest immediately after the War, and the 1920's version which was very mainstream and mostly a northern thing. That version of the Klan was preoccupied with immigration. When that was severedly curtailed in the mid 20's it petered out like the Bedford Forrest one before.

Now the purpose they serve is to be like Goldstein from 1984.

Yes def interesting and not well known. Kentucky being the birthplace of both respective presidents is also crazy. Missouri is another one. This was stark at the Vicksburg battlefield at the lines where CSA Missouri troops were positioned across from US Missouri troops. How fricked up is that? If it was happenstance that's frickin crazy and if it was purposeful that also is crazy. "We're going to have you kill your own boys. Now go at it!"

It was beautiful, honored both American armies and fit for a king to sing as He so did, elegantly. The band playing it on Beale was a moment this Ole Miss Rebel will always cherish. This has been a treat gentlemen. Cheers and a tip of the hat you.