Be Honest About the Past, Stop Memorializing White Supremacy
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By Earl Stoudemire, '21
"Team Lead on in Southern Style" / The Southerner yearbook, 1962
The Black Lives Matter Movement of 2020 has created a chain reaction of people pushing
for social justice to bring about change. Across the nation and around the state,
institutions -- including The University of 麻豆传媒 -- have been working
on changing their public image by removing symbols tied to a racist past.
Nationwide, protests and petitions have called for buildings to be renamed and statues
and monuments to be removed if they are traceably linked to the history of racial
segregation, slavery, or white supremacy.
Mississippi recently replaced its state flag that featured the Confederate battle
symbol for 126 years. On June 30, 2020, Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill to retire the
old flag and ban using the Confederate emblem as an official state symbol. On Monday,
Jan. 11, 2021, Reeves ratified the bill for the new Mississippi flag with a more appropriate
symbol, a magnolia blossom (the state flower). It now flies at the state capitol in
Jackson and at all state institutions.
Locally, there鈥檚 still work to do. Although the majority of voters in Mississippi
approved removing the flag with the Confederate emblem, residents in Forrest County
disapproved of a measure to relocate a Confederate statue in downtown Hattiesburg,
a majority-Black city; the vote was 49% for, 51% against in November 2020.
In Oxford, however, a year after University of Mississippi students voted unanimously
to move a Confederate statue from the center of campus, Ole Miss relocated it to a
cemetery on its grounds in July 2020. Comparisons across the state are drawn here
in considering the historic ties communities have with a local university.
Dixie Darlings to 鈥榗onsider鈥 changing name
A month later, Southern Miss announced that it would begin the process to consider changing the name of Dixie Darlings,
its dance team that has been in existence since 1954. The team鈥檚 signature song, 鈥淎re
You From Dixie," also could change on the recommendation of 鈥渃ritical stakeholders,鈥
including the student body.
Lovely Dixie Darlings pose before performance" / The Southerner yearbook, 1962
The name 鈥淒ixie鈥 has been degrading to Black Americans for centuries. During the Civil
War, it was used as the Confederate Army鈥檚 marching song and an unofficial anthem
of the Confederacy, according to . It also was a song used in racist minstrel shows where whites performed in blackface.
Peyton Stubbs, a Southern Miss graduate student and former Dixie Darling, supports a name change so all dancers can feel included.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 an important change so that future Dixie Darlings will have that safe space. We come here to college to get an education and as dancers that is our outlet,鈥 Stubbs said. 鈥淚 feel like that should be something everyone gets to do without having this umbrella over them about the fact that they are called something that doesn鈥檛 even include them.鈥
Stubbs recounted numerous times when people asked her about her stance on being a Black Dixie Darling.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 an important change so that people of color who become Dixie Darlings no longer have to worry about that narrative,鈥 said Stubbs. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have to worry about people coming up to them asking, 鈥楢re you comfortable being called a Dixie Darling?鈥 and 鈥楢re you comfortable saying you鈥檙e a Dixie Darling?鈥
鈥淚 will say, sometimes it was weird saying I was a Dixie Darling,鈥 Stubbs added. 鈥淚鈥檓 a Black woman. Dixie Darlings wasn鈥檛 for Black people or any person of color.鈥
As of February 2021, the name Dixie Darlings is still being used on the Southern Miss website in reference to the Pride of Mississippi Precision Dance Team. It is unclear how
the process to change the name is progressing.
Memorializing white supremacists
Even though it is good to hear about changes in Mississippi and at Ole Miss and a possible change at Southern Miss, students seeking to remove at least one name from the Hattiesburg campus have been unsuccessful for legal reasons.
In 2018, the discussed getting the name of William David McCain removed from McCain Library and Archives. McCain was the fifth president of Mississippi Southern College, from 1955 to 1975, and, under his tenure, it became The University of 麻豆传媒. He played a central role in ensuring that Clyde Kennard could never enroll in the predominantly white school during the 1950s. McCain, a military veteran, was a staunch segregationist who helped to reestablish the Sons of Confederate Veterans and was a member of the segregationist Citizens Council.
does not allow structures to be renamed if they were named for any historical military figure. McCain was a Major General in the Mississippi National Guard and served in World War II and the Korean War.
鈥淭he conservative South is hard to get away from all of the monuments, the places named after all these self-proclaimed racists and racist people because of where we are,鈥 Stubbs continued. 鈥淚 think that people who are administrative or in higher positions should put that into consideration the fact that these stadiums, monuments, and names of these racist people no longer represent the times we are in right now.鈥
Another structure on campus connected to a self-proclaimed racist is M.M. Roberts Stadium. It is unclear whether any state law prohibits Southern Miss from removing his name from the stadium.
Malcolm Mette Roberts, an attorney and Southern historian/archivist, served as president of the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning from 1960 until 1972. According to 鈥淓xit 13: Oppression and Racism in Academia鈥 by Monte Piliawsky, in a speech Roberts gave to the American Association of University Professors on campus, he said, 鈥淏ut as I鈥檝e gone along through the years and looked back I鈥檝e said to myself really that I am a racist. Every time I read a definition I say, 鈥榃ell, that鈥檚 me.鈥 I have no apologies for it, though. It鈥檚 me.鈥
Piliawsky wrote that Roberts, who also banned some civil rights leaders from speaking on campus and voted to withhold James Meredith鈥檚 degree from Ole Miss, said large numbers of full-time Black faculty would not be hired at predominantly white institutions, calling the idea 鈥渄estructive.鈥
鈥淚 think if you want to be a stupid idiot just stir for that kind of thing.鈥ne who thinks it seriously in his heart ought to get out of here and get out of this institution, because you don鈥檛 belong in our society if you think that is necessary -- a thing we鈥檝e got to do,鈥 according to Piliawsky鈥檚 book.
These blatant acts of racism were allowed in the past due to Ross Barnett鈥檚 appointment as governor and by being colleagues with M.M. Roberts at Ole Miss. Barnett appointed Roberts to serve in this position of authority, encouraging racism and acts of discrimination.
In 1975, former Southern Miss president McCain 鈥淭he Rock鈥 stadium after M.M. Roberts because of his fundraising for the university; the stadium opened a year later. However, when referring to the stadium where thousands of students and other spectators support the Golden Eagles football team, which is mostly Black today, some players and performers of color don鈥檛 know where the name comes from.
鈥淭o be honest, I didn鈥檛 know who M.M. Roberts was, but about the stadium, it鈥檚 an honor to play out there, but it鈥檚 crazy,鈥 said Paul Gainer Jr., a senior offensive lineman on the football team.
鈥淚t鈥檚 sad to say, but that鈥檚 the America we live in. I feel like there鈥檚 always going to be racial tension from somewhere. I think everybody knows it鈥檚 around and they see it, they just don鈥檛 say it,鈥 Gainer said. 鈥淪ome people do need to speak up and say something, but I feel like right now, it鈥檚 time for a change.鈥
Added Stubbs, the former Dixie Darling: 鈥淗e didn鈥檛 want me there, and I performed in a stadium that was named after this man who did not care about my life or anything about it, but at the time, I didn鈥檛 know who he was or anything about him.鈥
However, Student Government Association Senator Janiya Davis said some people do know about the racist views Roberts held.
鈥淗aving his name on the stadium sends a message that is directly counteractive to the progress that the university has made over the years,鈥 Davis said. 鈥淚t invalidates the efforts that they are taking. You want to do this and be a sign of diversity, and you want to welcome students, but you have this racist name on your stadium.鈥
Even deeper than the stadium name, part of the football field, Carlisle-Faulkner Field, is named after a Jim Crow-defending racist, Louis Edward Faulkner, because he donated material to have the football field created and was chairman of the Hattiesburg committee of unemployment relief. The rabbit-hole continuously grows bigger with places on Southern Miss鈥 campus with names that need to be changed or clarified for context.
Student Lohn Lenoir said he thinks Southern Miss will be transparent with students
about Roberts鈥 background. 鈥淚 think that they鈥檒l do it in a way that they鈥檒l acknowledge
him and not disrespect him,鈥 Lenoir said. 鈥淭hey won鈥檛 say that he was a bad person,
but the things that he did were bad because those were the times that we were living
in.鈥
Emblem for the "University for the New South" Campaign
Almost 30 years ago, the university promoted itself as the "University for the New
South," a moniker that appeared on bumper stickers and promotional materials insinuating
a more "progressive" institutional experience in the state during that time. That
campaign was successful in perpetuating a facade of advancement the university has
yet to reach.
Jourdan Green, president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority chapter at Southern Miss, said because the university loves to claim to be the most diverse university in the state, it should try to be more inclusive.
鈥淚t's important to move past tradition and get to a place where everyone feels comfortable.
More conversations need to happen,鈥 Green said. 鈥淪ituations during orientation include
names and observe different buildings. We need to know what part of the university
did they contribute to so we can move forward in a progressive way.鈥 Be honest about
the past and be open to changing tradition.鈥
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