Nearly a decade ago, I took my first and only trip to the center of the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Miss., and I lived to tell about it.It wasn't fun.
The place is called The Grove, where tailgaters join others before Mississippi football games to hear a concert from The Pride of the South Marching Band. With various versions of "Dixie " blaring, Confederate flags waving and "yahoos" echoing through the willow oaks, the whole thing ranks among the most appalling things I've seen as a sports journalist who happens to be darker than a KKK hood.
Speaking of which, a small group of those 19th century-thinking people marched on the Ole Miss campus last Saturday before the LSU game. They were protesting the decision of university chancellor Dan Jones to bar the school band from spending time in The Grove and elsewhere playing "From Dixie with Love," a silly blend of the Union Army's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the Confederate Army's "Dixie." At the end of the medley, folks would yell, "The South shall rise again."
Thus Jones' ban -- which was good. Even better, those dozen or so KKK members were shouted down by around 250 hecklers of all races, religions and ages. What was expected to be a vicious rally by the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan evolved into a mostly nothing affair.
Still, here are some questions: Since the Ole Miss band played that Dixie stuff forever (and this particular medley for nearly 20 years), what took university officials so long to get a spine? And why do they continue to allow the nickname "Rebels" for their sports teams? And why would black players go to such a place?
Just the other day, Ole Miss football coach Houston Nutt told the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger that opposing coaches are using those Southern heritage things -- you know, the name given to those things by their loyal and backwards supporters -- to scare recruits away from the University of Mississippi.
Those things would scare me. Even so, Nutt told the newspaper that he hasn't witnessed a racial incident during his two seasons with the program, and that the majority of his players are black, and that his coaching staff is evenly split racially. His Rebels also are in the midst of an impressive season -- a rarity for Ole Miss during much of their past 40 year or so -- with an 8-3 record overall and 4-3 mark in the Southeastern Conference after victories over rivals Tennessee and LSU.
It's just that, even though the last one was a clunker, you always have the possibility of Klan uprisings, and you have the mindset of those still wishing to make the Confederate flag part of their game-day rituals. None of that is a pretty look for a famously intolerant university during the 1960s that helped give Mississippi a wretched name before and during the Civil Rights movement.
"Anything that anybody from the outside says about our past, we probably deserve. But I tell you what, our present and our future in the South, I feel very strongly about and particularly at Ole Miss, because of the students I've had the opportunity to work with."
-- Sparky Reardon,
Ole Miss vice chancellor for student affairs
"Anything that anybody from the outside says about our past, we probably deserve," Sparky Reardon told FanHouse this week. He is the Ole Miss vice chancellor for student affairs and the Class of 1972. "But I tell you what," Reardon said, "our present and our future in the South, I feel very strongly about and particularly at Ole Miss, because of the students I've had the opportunity to work with. And, you know, we have a group here that I think is probably unlike any other group in the country.
"It's called 'One Mississippi," and it's an ongoing dialogue about race of black and white students. They were the leaders in the protest and the counter-protest (against the Klan) on Saturday. As a native Mississippian (from Clarksdale), it just warms my heart to see that, because there was a period when there was a clash. And then there was a period when something happened, people would isolate. People would go to their own corner.
"Now what we're finding in Mississippi -- and specifically at Ole Miss -- when there is any type of contention or controversy, our students come together and talk about it, which I think is a wonderful laboratory for real life. Don't quit talking."
Talking is fine. Doing is better. So during the last dozen years or so, Ole Miss has attempted to join at least the 20th century.
It has been a clumsy journey for Ole Miss officials. In 1993, they stripped their plantation owner-looking mascot named Colonel Reb of his duties on the sidelines and at courtside of games. He nevertheless was free to roam The Grove, for instance. It took a while before they finally had the guts to ignore the considerable howling from the masses to kill the guy and then bury him.
Then, during the latter 1990s, former coach Tommy Tuberville begged Ole Miss fans to stop their eternal practice of waving Confederate flags during home football games. The results were mixed. As a result, Ole Miss officials were forced to react, but they took a cowardly approach. Instead of declaring a straight-out ban on Confederate flags, they banned the use of carrying sticks into the stadium, claiming the sticks on the end of flags and banners could be dangerous.
Whatever works, I guess. That ban was upheld by a couple of federal courts after a challenge by Mississippi 's usual suspects in white.
Just as impressive, Jones ended those "Dixie" songs after he said the chanting of "The South shall rise again" was unacceptable. More impressive, Jones only has been Ole Miss chancellor since July after serving as a doctor in private practice around his native Mississippi and as an administrator in the medical field. In other words, Jones wasn't around for the following: Three years ago, Ole Miss officials ended a decade of debate by placing a life-size bronze statue of the heroic James Meredith on campus within 100 feet of the ancient statute of a Confederate soldier. Meredith was the first black student admitted to Ole Miss in 1962 during a riot filled with gunfire.
During my trip to Ole Miss a decade ago, I visited the Lyceum Building that houses the Ole Miss administration, and I saw places in its old brick columns that featured bullet holes from the Meredith era. That was a riveting moment. In contrast, there were revolting moments when I reached The Grove.
I took my camcorder. So, just before I headed to these computer keys, I watched what I recorded back then to refresh my memory.
Despite the beauty of the tree-lined Ole Miss campus sparkling in the sun on an autumn afternoon, I saw the ugliness of those Confederate flag wavers, including youngsters in their signal digits. Once the Ole Miss band started its transition into its mournful version of "Dixie," I saw many remove their caps. I even saw a close up of an elderly gentleman standing nearby with tears in his eyes.As the song picked up, I heard the "Yahoos" begin.
Then, out of the corner of the screen, I saw two men approaching with crooked smiles, and I remember how I tried to ignore them while I kept filming. I heard one of the men on the film saying something like, "You're getting a lot of good shots? What are you, let me see what you're doing." Then I heard the other man use a word that those real Colonel Rebs used to utter to their slaves.
That's when I decided back then to head to my version of the underground railroad called the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium pressbox.
Reardon said things have changed. He invited me to join him on a modern-day stroll through The Grove. He suggested the transformation of Ole Miss during the decade since I was last on campus is evident at The Grove as well as everywhere else.
"The chant will not come back. Colonel Rebel will not come back. Those things are in the past, but I just think that after we get finished with our bowl game, we'll probably all sit down and talk about where we're going to go next year," said Reardon, stressing Ole Miss' commitment to diversity and estimating that 25 percent of Ole Miss' undergraduate enrollment of 14,000 is black.
Added Reardon, "I just wish everybody had the vantage point that I have every day, to see young students -- African-Americans, international, Hispanics, who are sitting together and eating every day and talking and laughing and going to football games and hoddy todding together.
"Yet we have a few people who want to hold onto the vestiges of the past in the worst kind of way, and the university is not going to stand for that."
Sounds encouraging, but we'll see. Hopefully, we won't see anything close to what I just finished watching.
Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.
Comments (Page 1 of 2)
If you do not like it do not go there. It is your opinion. Why try to change the heritage and history. This is America. Ever heard of Freedom of Speech. We have to listen and be inundated by all the rap music with terrible language and homosexual displays like the display by Adam Lambert on the AMA's and you are worried about this. Wake up. Leave tradition alone. Nobody is advocating racism, KKK or anything related to that. It is your small minded opinion. Get over it.
Your view just verified what the auther conveyed. And for that reason the South will never rise again and it's ugly past will continue to cast a dark shadow over Mississippi's future. I'm glad I was born a Yankee. And here's a revelation about history. The South lost the war. Get over it and start waiving the American Flag. You remember America don't you and our President Barrack Obama.
When oh when will this crap end? Terence Moore is actually the biggest racist alive!!! What a jerk!!
Don't worry you inbred cretins. You can still marry your sisters. We are mean but we won't take away all of your redneck pleasures. Sister kissin, eating roadkill, being shown on cops with no shirt on, toothbrushes wont be forced on you, poor school system and last but not least rusted out chevy trucks will still be available. Trailer parks forever.
jwr Clean up you own gehhtos 1st. You must be one that has had to receive bale out money because you cant afford to pay for your house live on food stamps and sell drugs to kids in the alley of your hood. You are nothing more than a cost to society maybe you need to come visit in South Texas and learn some responsibility and respect BOY!
GET A LIFE! What is with trying to tear down every tradition int he world?!?!? This guy does not have enough to do on Saturdays in the fall. Perhaps he should try getting a real job and leave the 'fun' to those who have been at it a very long time.
Is Black History month racist? Quanza? The South was not all bad but it is OUR history.
When will black people assimilate?
Talk about important issues. Unwed black mothers, absentee fathers, crime rate, education. Blacks dominate sports and prison populations.
You and Jesse Jackson make lots of money stirring the pot – you will never want it to end – it is your job.
Traditions are traditions and they shouldn't be changed just because you or some group doesn't like them. Frankly there are many traditions I don't care for, but they are meaningful to someone or a group and should be continued insite of what I think or feel about them. Fortuntally we still live in a country where we can express and enjoy our traditions and if you don't care for them then ignor them...your not required to participate in them or even watch them....grow up, life is to short to worry about why something is a tradition or what it might mean.....how about this why don't we all start a tradition of not complaining about what was and start thinking about what could be......life sure would be more enjoyable for sure!
The nickname is apparently a double-entendre. W. Ralph Eubanks, an African American man who attended the University of Mississippi, and whose parents, in an earlier era, were targeted by an Orwellian organization called the Missssippi Sovereignty Commission, explains the lesser-known meaning of the term, "Ole Miss," in his 2003 memoir, "Ever is a Long Time." It's a pretty interesting memoir and there's really no bitterness in it.
Plug in Ole Miss under 'Search inside this book.'
http://books.google.com/books?id=d_qkhj3_--EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ever+is+a+long+time#v=onepage&q=&f=false
A couple of William Faukner's greatest novels are set around the time of the Civil War when the University of Mississippi at Oxford was just an upstart school, and there are references to that fact in "Absalom, Absalom!" for instance, which I consider his greatest novel. An African American guy I know got me started reading Faulkner, and this is his favorite too.
The three women who are left behind on "The Hundreds" (Thomas Sutpen's plantation) when he goes off to fight the Civil War, are, in my opinion, the prototype for the so-called three-woman utopian communities in some of Toni Morrison's novels. 'Nuff said.
Aren't you from Mishiwaka or someplace like that? Didn't you attend Ben Roethlisberger's alma mater in Ohio?
I'm not going to check but I just get the feeling that everything this dude writes is laced with this same venom. What about Jackson State? Or Grambling? Howard? How many "white schools" are out there? How many white guys play on the Jackson State football team? What if a white coach wants to join the Black Coaches Association? Would he be excluded because of his race?
There simply is no way to argue this article without someone calling out racism, but it still smacks of hypocrisy. You openly state that there have been major strides over the last few years, yet you are still compaining that not enough is being done because there are still idiots out there who won't let the past go. You always want whites to walk in your shoes, yet you don't have the nerve to take a stroll in ours. You're openly walking through the heart of former slave country, and you got a few dirty looks or cowardly comments--try being white and going through any one of a thousand inner-city black neighborhoods, your own "Ole Miss campuses". Forget about a few sneaky comments on the side--the hate is broadcast from the rooftops. The taunts are loud and open, the threats of violence are very real and totally accepted within the "campus", and we'd be lucky to make it out in one piece. Where are your pleas to change THAT culture? Why is it okay for whites to endure open hostility and racism--heck, a black man can even be quoted making anti-white comments in the media, with no fear of reprisal, yet we must continually listen to how we're just not doing enough to change ourselves. Racism and hate SUCK, no matter who's guilty, but taking the negative road in a place where clear strides have been made just stirs things up--try celebrating the positive for once, because a LOT has changed in your favor, and there's more every day.
This is 2009 not 1949 but congrats go to those KKK guys for stepping on a college campus for the first time of their lives
I'm sorry you had such a tough time in Oxford, Terrence. I'm sorry you think enough hasn't been done to atone for the past. But, let me ask you a question: If you were in charge of Ole Miss, what more would you do? Do you think it is proper and necessary to absolutely restrict a person's freedom of thought and freedom of speech just so you will not feel uncomfortable?
Turn the other cheek and try to encourage the university. It would make you a more mature man and lend some legitimacy to you snide criticisms.
At present, I'm afraid your tone is angry and way out of date. Learn to get along and lose some of the self righteousness that drips from this column.
If most people knew anything other than the salves were sat free after the Civil War, then they would know the war wasn't fought over salves. Which there should have "NEVER" been salves to began with. The black race also needs to remember their fore fathers were sold by "blak" people to be sold for salves. The average Southern back then could hardly feed his own family muchless own a salve. It was the "RICH." Now the CIVIL WAR was started over "STATES RIGHT" not salves. Noone back then joined the Southern army to help "RICH" people keep salves, and die for that. The Northern people ("RICH") wanted to take away for greed the rights of each State. That is what it was being fought about. Most Southern and Northern Americans don't even know this. Check your history. Again I agree strongly no one sholud have ever nor should ever be a salve. All men should have equal rights. But I really wish every one would get the facts correct. Neither do I believe in the KKK they are idots with no back bone that hide behind masks.
President Lincoln put in the salve issue after the war began to get Northern people behind the war. The Southern people which had very little other than a small lot of land was fighting for their land. Not salves. So yes they were rebels and if you think about it the people today of America should be rebels today and rebell against our sorry government elected people by voting all out and starting over. Thus not only the South but the whole nation should rise again to be a country of "FREEDOM" of crooked government. Nothing wrong with either song. No one means the South will rise to start salvery. Think and study history, not just the salve part. America needs to rise again, I would say.
As a man born and raised in neighboring Starkville , I can tell you that for the most part that same racist mindset still exist. I'm in Northeast Mississippi several times a year. Any progressive well traveled black people will never feel comfortable there.
ATTN! All black athletes, do not attend this racist University! The gall of them to sing songs and waive flags honoring the confederacy. Have we forgot that the confederacy waged war against the US?
The kkk is and always has been a terrorist organization. Is it also ok then for hamas to protest. Is it ok for the taliban to protest there?
Black athletes! DO NOT ATTEND OLE MISS! Lets see how they do with an all white team since your so superior!
Terence Moore is obviously a black journalist who is offended by anything that projects a racist overtone. The symbols at Ole Miss are about tradition! Not race! Why are white people not offended by a completely racial TV cable channel of the blacks, by the blacks, and for the blacks? Good for you. What if whites had a total white network? My God, the world would end. The Rebel flag, Colonel Reb, and the songs are traditional. If you are a black journalist from Clarksdale, then you need to be bringing light to the fact that your race has destroyed the Ms. Delta with guns, drugs, and crime. Clarksdale is a disgrace. Police have to stand out in front of restuarants to protect the good people. Why do you not write about that and try to improve your own race instead of trying to continue to denigrate the white race? We love our black students at Ole Miss. We welcome black students at Ole Miss. It is blacks like you that will not allow the past to die. You need to be worried about your "BLACK" president moving us towards Marxism. The fact his real name is Barry Soetoro and his religion is Islam. That is what you need to be writing about. You are the racist. Not Ole Miss associates. Please quit trying to utilize your race to continue to dismantle our traditions.
Blacks have their own Universities for God sake. I went to watch Jerry Rice play at Mississippi Valley State back in the 80's. Talk about being uncomfortable on an ALL black campus. Good lord. No racisism there. Did you hear me? An 'ALL BLACK COLLEGE'. The whites do not have that anymore. We would be crucified today. Get over your pompus black pride and encourage your own race to dismantle the symbols that offend us. How about that Black Panther group? How about that Louis Farrakhan character? No racial tension there. How about your wonderful Reverend Wright teaching Black Liberation Theology (better known as Marxism). How about that Acorn group? How is that working out for you? Write about your own race and the bigotry within your culture. What about the poor white boy who was nearly killed by two blacks in New York for dating a black girl? This topic is not easy for me to digest. WRITE TO IMPROVE YOUR OWN RACIAL PROBLEMS! Leave us alone. We are doing fine as a race. We even elected your black president for you and now are having major buyer's remorse. We did not know he was a radical, non-citizen that wanted us to move to Socialism. It is obvious now. Please write a story about your president. Please. I beg you.
So Terrence moore is the problem ? They were lynching and terrorizing black people there before Terrance was born!
BLACK ATHLETES! DO NOT ATTEND A SCHOOL WHERE THE KKK STILL PROTEST IN 2009!!!
The underground railroad went to Canada because Northern police forces were required by Federal law to return slaves to their southern owners. Once a slave was in Canada, they were free of these Federal laws.
I really feel sorry for you. Boy have you missed the mark in your opinion of Ole Miss. You owe every alumni and Student that have worked so hard in race relations an apology. Please do not stop by my tailgate in the Grove because I simply do not like you. Two days in your lifetime and you write a piece like this. You should be fired for incompetence.