Dixie Falls Silent On An Arabian (k)Night

(Previously posted on Facebook Page in September 2018) "Dixie", it is the nickname for the Southern United States. It is also the title of a popular song, which is probably one of the best known and certainly one of the most distinctively Southern musical products of the 19th century.

In the 21st century, during the summer of 2018, John Mullins, Arab Alabama City Schools Superintendent, announced the decision to stop playing the song "Dixie" as the small Alabama high school's fight song after the Arabian Knights score a touchdown. He released a statement saying the song was being dropped because it has "negative connotations that contradict our school district's core values of unity, integrity, and relationships." The school has a new principal, band director, football coach and stadium. Mullins added that education leaders also recently revisited the local vision and mission statements, adding a focus on unity. "Over the years, we had a handful of people express to us that our use of the fight song was bothersome. A few of those concerns came from within our community and some from without. The song made guests and some people within our community feel uncomfortable." said Mullins.

Shortly after this decision was made there were dozens of citizens from Arab that were in attendance at the school board meeting to show their support for "Dixie". Which was said to "depict as a traditional part of the soundtrack of life in their small, Southern town, rather than an ode to the days of slavery in the Old South." A former football coach in Arab, Wayne Trimble, now school board president, said his views on this are based upon an incident that took place in the late 1970's. An opposing head coach told him he wasn't sure he could convince his players to travel to Arab because of the song "Dixie" being played. "That has stuck with me a long time. Is that the way we want Arab to be perceived?" Trimble said in an Associated Press interview. For now a song called "The Horse" has temporarily replaced "Dixie" while a new fight song is being decided upon and selected.

Arab is a small city located in the northern part of Alabama within Marshall and Cullman counties. According to the census of 2000 it's population was 7,174. The racial makeup was 98.29% White. I lived in Arab, off and on, from 1976 to 1982, and I am proud to be a part of the Arab High School Class of 1982. I would like to share two different incidents that took place during the last few years I was there.

One was when I was driving through the downtown area of Arab and was stopped at a traffic light. Now I had been through this intersection so many times that I knew that when the light in front of me turned green and I made that left-hand turn, the light just up the street would turn red making me come to a stop again. Normally this would not have been an issue, but on this particular day, standing in the middle of the road under that traffic light just up the street, in front of the Arab First Baptist Church, was an individual wearing a floor-length, solid-white robe and a sharply pointed white hat and they were holding a Kentucky Fried Chicken Bucket. I knew that as I would get to this traffic light, which will be red by then, the person standing there will shove that bucket through my opened driver's side window and will ask me for a donation to "the cause".

As a young white male in this small city located in the northern part of Alabama I'm thinking if I don't donate, will I be pulled out of my vehicle and beaten? If I don't stop will they write down my tag number and hunt me down later for that beating? I was also thinking , if I were to run the red light maybe the Police might be close by and as I was still a fairly new driver I would get my very first traffic ticket. Or maybe not, since I knew almost all of the Officers from that small Department. Most of them had at one time or another been in the local Pizza Hut where I worked for a hot cup of coffee. I made the choice to speed up and drive right past that person even though that light did indeed turn red. I quickly made a right turn and drove down the road that passed right in front of Arab High School a little further down. Thankfully I was never stopped by the Police for running that red light nor was I ever beaten up by anyone wearing one of those floor-length, solid-white robes and a sharply pointed white hat.

The other incident took place at that Pizza Hut where I worked. On this day there was an elderly Black gentleman that was delivering fresh produce. As he was entering and exiting the back door of the restaurant, there were White customers in the dining area that watched each and every move he made. They even watched him as he drove away in his old beat up pick-up truck. None of them were wearing one of those floor-length, solid-white robes and a sharply pointed white hat that I remember. And I'm sure I would have recalled that if they had been. But these two incidents have stuck with me for a long time since. While these may have been isolated occurrences, I'm sure that this is not how the people of that small city located in the northern part of Alabama really want to be perceived. I know I never have thought it to reflect the views of everyone that lives there.

I was born in a Southeastern Alabama city in which, some 44 years before, the townspeople erected a statue to honor an agricultural pest. I am of Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh descent. I am the Great Great Grandson of a Soldier of the Confederate States of America. I am the Son and Grandson of Southern Baptist Preachers. I am a Southern white heterosexual male that believes in God, owns guns and I am a Veteran. According to some today, I would most likely be quickly labeled as automatically being a RACIST! As a matter of fact awhile back I was called a "terrorist" by someone somewhere on the inter-webs that doesn't even know me. They decided that, just simply because I sport the "Confederate Battle Flag", also known as "Rebel Flag", on a piece of clothing I wear from time to time. For many Southerners the song "Dixie" is considered a symbol of their Southern heritage, as is that Confederate flag. The 1948 "Dixiecrat" political party extensively used Confederate symbols, including the Battle Flag, and even contributed to it's post-World War II re-popularization. While I am proud of my heritage, and for the record I have never worn nor do I ever intend to wear one of those floor-length, solid-white robes and a sharply pointed white hat, I can hold my head up high and first and foremost exclaim I AM AN AMERICAN!

According to some information on my family history it is said that my ancestors are from the County Cork in Ireland. They arrived in what one day would be known as America in the 1630's. County Cork has also sometimes been referred to as "The Rebel County" due to the prominent role it played in the Irish War of Independence. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I like songs from the Irish Rebellions. Or maybe it could just be that I enjoy many different types and styles of music. While I'm thinking about my own Irish heritage, I know that in the 19th century, when the song "Dixie" was born, there were numerous Irish immigrants that left their homeland during the Irish Potato Famine from 1846 to 1850. An estimated two million chose to emigrate to the United States for new opportunities. Most were poor farmers and their children. By the 1850's it was thought that more than one-fourth of the population in the cities of New York, Chicago, Boston, and Baltimore were Irish immigrants.

Those immigrants left Ireland in hopes of finding a life better than the one they had left behind. Upon arriving in America they were sometimes met with entirely new challenges. They were often singled out with a number of discriminatory practices. Irish immigrants were seen as lazy, drunk, anarchistic "Rebel" criminals. Even though debated to this day, there were said to be some incidents in which a "No Irish Need Apply" sign would be displayed on storefronts or appear in local newspaper advertisements. There was even a popular song from the 1860's titled "No Irish Need Apply". I'm certainly not trying to say that those Irish immigrants who were indentured servants at the time faced the same atrocities as those from Africa during the days of slavery in the Old South. But I am rather trying to show that during our Nation's history there have been times where one sect of people have held or at least attempted to hold dominance over others.

Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett, of Irish ancestry, was an American songwriter, entertainer, and founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Virginia Minstrels. Most sources credit him with the composition of the song "Dixie", although there have been others to make that claim as well. The song did originate from the minstrel shows of the 1850's and quickly became popular throughout the United States. The Confederate States of America did adopt it to be their National Anthem during the American Civil War. And 120 years later there was that incident in that small city located in the northern part of Alabama where an opposing football team may have had travel issues because of the song "Dixie" being played.

The song "Dixie" was frequently challenged as being racist during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's and 1960's. Members of the 75th United States Army Band protested the song in 1971. In 1989, three Black Georgia Senators walked out when the Miss Georgia Sweet Potato Queen sang the song in the Georgia chamber. The song is often challenged for it's allegedly racist origins. Some people say that the song still conjures visions of an unrepentant, militarily rebellious South, ready to reassert it's aged theories of white supremacy at any moment. It seems as if more recently this song, which has been used by many Southern universities and schools, coupled with the Rebel mascot and the Confederate flag, have now since been deemed to be racially offensive because of the perceived negative connotations by those who consider them to be relics of the Confederacy and a reminder of decades of white domination and segregation or perhaps it is just the song itself makes a handful of some people feel uncomfortable. While it is true that often certain "Hate Groups" have adopted several of the symbols of the Confederacy, it doesn't mean that each and every individual that shows their appreciation for such things are the very same ones that wear those floor-length, solid-white robes and a sharply pointed white hats.

Those on the "Tolerant Left" are often the first sect of people to make demands for the removal, banning and making forbidden of those things that are perceived to be "racist", "discriminatory", "bothersome" or anything with "negative connotations" or makes some people "feel uncomfortable". While at the same time express the need for anyone and everyone to have the willingness to tolerate those things, in particular the existence of opinions or behaviors that one might not necessarily agree with. If we continue to allow these actions to happen it won't be long until none of us have anything to be offended by because we will not have anything left. The illegal destruction of statues or government sanctioned removal of monuments and other things that have been determined to be offensive or archaic by an individual or groups of people will not change the past or the hatred that is still in some people's hearts. I remember a time when I was going through some particular hard times with the break up of my normal family life that I said that I hated my Dad. My Grandmother very quickly reminded me that if I had the love of God in my heart I couldn't hate anyone. Something I learned and have never forgotten.

My thoughts turn to the statement of, then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton as she was eulogizing the passing of Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. She called him "a friend and mentor" and "a man of unsurpassing eloquence and nobility." She has often shown her "double-standards" in many different ways. This wasn't the first I'm sure it wasn't and won't be her last time in doing so. In the early 1940's, Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to create a new chapter of a group of people known to wear floor-length, solid-white robes and a sharply pointed white hats. I know that they were not the ones standing in the middle of the road with a Kentucky Fried Chicken Bucket in front of that First Baptist Church in that small city located in the northern part of Alabama. But they were cut from the same cloth of those that were actually there that one day when I made the choice to speed up and drive right past that one person under that traffic light that had turned red. Byrd did later call joining that group the greatest mistake he ever made. in 2005 he said "I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened."

168 years after the song "Dixie" was born, the superintendent of a school in that small city located in the northern part of Alabama made the decision to stop playing the song "Dixie" as the school's fight song after the Arabian Knights score a touchdown. In an interview Mullins said "Our community has a rich history of supporting our school system, and more importantly supporting our students. I understand the difficulty of this change. But there is much more to our school district and history than this song. We have a rich academic history that we're going to continue. We have a rich tradition of band, of theater. There are many, many traditions here." He added, "It is our hope, that for the people who are upset at this issue, their support for our students is greater than their affinity for this one particular song."

"Tradition", the word is defined as a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. There is a quote attributed to George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." America's past, it's history, is what makes us what we are today. Good or bad it should be remembered. Not something that should be removed, banned or made forbidden even if it may make a handful of some people feel uncomfortable.

There is so much hatred and division in or about this quaint small Southern city that I once lived in, called home and have some fond memories of. The city and those that live there have been thrown into the national limelight with the controversy of the decision about the song "Dixie". According to The Arab Tribune, "more than 300 people commented on one thread on a social media site regarding it." In another interview Mullins said, "The ethnic diversity of the school is growing." I've read some of the comments on social media, many of which are from the residents that live in Arab, where according to the census of 2000 it's population was 7,174 and the racial makeup was 98.29% White. Many of those comments showed the person's love for the song "Dixie". Some mentioned "tradition and heritage". Others said that the superintendent "needs to apologize for it and he needs to reverse it." While yet more contained name-calling, vulgar insults and personal attacks. I even saw where there were suggestions of protests and boycotts against a local burger joint. In another article from The Arab Tribune, about this ongoing “Dixie” controversy, it mentions "at least one person on social media has posted inaccurate information about Arab City Schools." It further reports that while the paper won’t repeat the incorrect information, it wishes to provide correct information according to the Alabama State Department of Education that the Arab City School System is not failing. All too often it is seen where false or misleading information is put out on social media and without people checking for accuracy, it is repeated and shared by many. There seems to be some people that thinks almost everyone in Arab Alabama wears those floor-length, solid-white robes and a sharply pointed white hats. I'm sure that this is not how the people that live there really want to be perceived.

Several months ago I read the book "Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families". It is a nonfiction written by J. Anthony Lukas that tells a story as it examines race relations and traces the history of three families during the desegregation busing crisis in the 1970's. The working-class African-American Twymons, the working-class Irish McGoffs and the middle-class Yankee Divers. It gives brief genealogical histories of each of the families. Focusing on how the events they went through illuminated Boston's history, before narrowing the focus on the racial tension of the 1960's and the 1970's. In addition to the family stories it also examines many of the issues related to busing, including the protest movements, the disaffection between the "two-toilet" Irish middle-class and their working-class brethren, the impact of busing on national politics, and the evolution of the city's news-media.

Reading this book made me think of the racial issues I witnessed growing up in Alabama during the 1960's to the 1980's. As a kid I heard, laughed at and even retold some jokes that were very racial in nature. I remember hearing older adults around me, including my own parents, saying things very negative about anyone with different skin color than mine. It was something that was learned growing up in the South during those years. It was just the way it was back then. On the very day I was born in that Southeastern Alabama city on August 28, 1963, some 800 miles or so away in Washington D.C., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now famous "I Have A Dream" speech. Upon graduating high school in Arab in 1982 I joined the US Air Force. During my Basic Military Training I remember being taught that the color of one's skin does not matter for it may be the one beside you that would save your life in the time of battle, or you saving their life. This same thought process was reinforced in 1989 when I was training to become a Police Officer in the state of Alabama. Something I learned and have never forgotten.

Sometime after reading "Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families", I asked the question "What divides us?" to my wife and two sons, I also asked them to write down at least three things. I told them that I bet I could guess the three that they might write down. While there are many things that divide us, it always seems to be Politics, Race/Ethnicity and Religion that are first mentioned. Today that hatred continues throughout our World, across our Nation and even in that small city located in the northern part of Alabama. And it always will, hatred is something that is taught and learned by each generation.

So as "Dixie Falls Silent On An Arabian (k)Night" it is my hope that the citizens of Arab will somehow and somewhere along the way search for and find a little bit of that common ground if you wish to see your quaint small Southern city and future generations that grow up there survive. Let that be what sticks for a long time with others from within your community and those from without. That is how you should want your Arabian Knights to be perceived!

"The night they drove old Dixie down, and the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down, and the people were singin' they went

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la"