Some of you may have heard about the current controversy at The University of Mississippi. We have for years been playing a song known as “From Dixie with Love” (aka The American Trilogy by Elvis Presley). The song blends the battle song of the confederacy Dixie with the battle song of the Union The Battle Hymn of the Republic. About 5 years ago, a small group of students started chanting “The South will rise again” during the part of the Battle Hymn that goes “His truth is marching on.” Over the brief few years, the number of students has increased to the point that it is becoming a problem.
Our new chancellor, Dr. Dan Jones, has tried to stop it through clipping the notes from the song to a direct appeal to the students to stop. Others including the football and men’s basketball coaches, the ASB Senate and Shepard Smith have all asked the students to quit. Early this week, Chancellor Jones issued an ultimatum. Stop the chant or the song will be removed from the band’s playlist.
Today, the final shoe has dropped. Mississippi’s leading segregationist (read as racist, white sheet wearing idiot) has weighed in giving his full support to student who continue the chant.
From the Daily Mississippian:
Nationalist leader Richard Barrett has come forward urging Chancellor Dan Jones to “back off” of the Ole Miss student body concerning their right to chant “the South will rise again,” though the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) claims Barrett is known for supporting racist ideals.
“Barrett is a longstanding white supremacist,” according to a previous article written by the SPLC, “He has led rallies of Klansmen and others and worked alongside some of the most extreme racists in America.”
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“In an interview with The Daily Mississippian, Barrett was asked why he was opposed to the ending the chant. Barrett said that he was not in opposition to the chant but in favor of the students, saying, “They are not about to haul down the statue of the Confederate soldier and put up Nikita Khrushchev. They are the opposite of the Khrushchev invaders of Budapest and the Meredith (the first black student at Ole Miss) invaders of Ole Miss.”
Hopefully our students will grow up tomorrow and turn their back on Barrett and his racism.
tagged in College Football, ole miss
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