Friday HottyToddy.com learned that the Ole Miss band, known as The Pride of the South, will no longer perform ‘Dixie’ in any of its performances.
“The newly expanded and renovated Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will further highlight our best traditions and create new ones that give the Ole Miss Rebels the best home field advantage in college football,” Ole Miss Athletic Director Ross Bjork said in a statement. “Because the Pride of the South is such a large part of our overall experience and tradition, the Athletics Department asked them to create a new and modern pregame show that does not include Dixie and is more inclusive for all fans.”
The first performance the Ole Miss Band deferred playing the historic song was during the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2016. According to David Sansing, Ole Miss historian and retired professor, the Ole Miss band first performed the song around 1948.
The song “Dixie” was written by Northerner Daniel Decatur Emmett of Mount Vernon, Ohio.
First played in 1859 in New York, some say the song was adopted as the official song of the Confederacy during the Civil War while others connect the anthem with the Underground Railroad. The lyric “Dixie’s Land” could reference the region known as a safe haven.
Dixie Lyrics
I wish I was in the land of cotton,
old times there are not forgotten,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.
In Dixie Land where I was born in,
early on a frosty mornin’,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.
Then I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray!
In Dixie Land I’ll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,
Away, away, away down South in Dixie,
Away, away, away down South in Dixie.
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Russ Jones is the Editor-In-Chief for HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at russ.jones@hottytoddy.com.
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