KU KLUX KLAN HOLDS RALLY AT OLE MISS

By R. A. Pearson

Members of the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan spent about 10 minutes waving flags, displaying Nazi-style salutes and occasionally gesturing at a group of about 250 hecklers that included young children at a pre-game rally in Oxford, Mississippi, on November 20, 2009, before the Ole Miss Rebels’ football game with LSU. They were protesting the school's decision to drop a pep song that included “Dixie.” Fans often ending the song by chanting, “The South will rise again.” Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones had asked the fans to stop the chant, and when they did not, he instructed the band to stop playing the song. The Klan said it was protesting over lost Southern symbolism at the university, which has been rocked by racial strife before.

The controversy began in October when the Ole Miss Associated Student Body passed a resolution in favor of discontinuing chanting “the South will rise again.” However, the resolution was never fully enacted because it was not signed by the proper school officials after passing the senate, said Peyton Beard, Ole Miss Associated Student Body director of athletics. The song, ‘From Dixie with Love’ is one of Ole Miss’ traditional songs on game day, and the student section has chanted “the South will rise again” during the song for years, said Brian Ferguson, alumni chairman of the Colonel Reb foundation.

The student section largely ignored the resolution and other attempts to stop the chant prompting the removal of the song from the band’s game day repertoire. In a written address to the Ole Miss student body Chancellor Jones said, “We cannot even appear to support those outside our community who advocate a revival of segregation. Consequently, I have asked the band not to play ‘From Dixie with Love’ at upcoming athletics events. The absence of this song will send a clear message that the university is neither facilitating nor indirectly condoning the chant.”

The decision to ban the song drew the attention of the Ku Klux Klan, which made plans to protest the ban in full robes on the day of the LSU game from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Shane Tate, the North Mississippi great titan for the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, indicated the protest was to tell Ole Miss enough is enough. The Klan considered the removal of the song as an attack on our Christian, southern heritage and culture, and it’s time for every person to have a right to freedom of speech. Prior to the event Tate said, “We aren’t coming there to cause problems or cause trouble. Trouble has already been caused by a handful at Ole Miss, including the black student body president, who wants to shape Ole Miss into yet another liberal sodomite college.”

Ole Miss officials said the Ku Klux Klan had the right to voice its opinions as long as it did not interfere with university activity or the personal rights of others. In the end, the protest lasted about 15 minutes.

In 1997, student leaders approved a resolution asking Ole Miss fans to stop waving Confederate Battle flags at athletic events. University officials then banned people from bringing sticks into games, a move that dramatically curtailed the decades-long practice of fans carrying the flag. Jones’ predecessor, Robert Khayat, said the Confederate Battle flag had been misused by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and it was not in the university’s best interest to use it as a symbol.

Six years ago, university officials decided not to have an on-field mascot during sporting events, getting rid of the long-standing Colonel Rebel, a white-haired old man who carries a cane and resembles a plantation owner. At the time, school officials had said they needed a more athletic-looking mascot.

Perhaps nixing “The South shall rise again” and ‘From Dixie with Love’ was the next appropriate step. The Chancellor gave the students plenty of time to keep the song and end the chant.

As the 'Clarion Issue' has always indicated the Ku Klux Klan needs to come up with its own symbols. They have disgraced the Confederate Battle flag, a historic flag used by some of the Confederate forces during the Civil War, and parlayed the burning cross, a Scottish symbol used to call the highland clans to battle, into a symbol of hate. Can these guys have an original thought?