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NBC News Report Focuses on Race at Ole Miss
The Confederate Memorial Statue on the Ole Miss campus is one of the Confederate symbols discussed in an NBC News report about racial tensions at the school. Photo by Brantley Meaders.
Race and Confederate symbols are the focus of an NBC News multimedia piece about Ole Miss released today.
Ole Miss alumnus Phil McCausland, now an NBC reporter, returned to the campus for the special video report, titled “Old Battles in a New South.” An accompanying article, “The Confederacy still haunts the campus of Ole Miss,” goes into greater detail, revisiting racially charged episodes in the university’s recent history, including the incident in which two students tied a noose around the James Meredith statue and ongoing efforts to revive the Colonel Reb mascot.
The video spotlights two Ole Miss students with differing viewpoints: Makala McNeil, a senior sociology major, African-American, and member of the Student Senate, and white conservative Coco McDonald, who authored a Student Senate bill intended to suspend a university committee that adds context to Confederate symbols around campus.
Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter was also interviewed for the video.
The article features additional interviews with professors, students and alumni with varying points of view. Among them: Wess Helton, a junior international studies major and student president of the Colonel Reb Foundation; Ariel Cobbert, an African-American student majoring in journalism who said her parents feared for her safety when she decided to attend Ole Miss; Dr. James Thomas, a sociology professor and faculty adviser to the student chapter of the NAACP; and Republican political consultant Howie Morgan, founder of the Colonel Reb Foundation.The article highlights “the contentious balancing act that Ole Miss has pursued since the university integrated in 1962, which led to riots, tear gas, thrown bricks and two murders. The school wants to appeal to a new, diverse student base without disenfranchising its conservative students or infuriating the wealthy political groups and alumni that are pressuring the university to uphold its white heritage.”
Rick Hynum is editor-in-chief of HottyToddy.com. Email him at rick.hynum@hottytoddy.com.
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Rani Wojcik Cochran
November 16, 2017 at 10:28 pm
Quote from my favorite movie “You can’t ride 2 horses with one saddle sugar bean” (may not be the exact words but close enough). I’m starting to believe that Ole Miss is perpetuating the drama on both sides by posting like a bipolar 6th grader. My alma mauter either wants to hold on the the old days or step into the present. Either way, just decide, then we can all move forward.
KD
November 17, 2017 at 11:39 am
I believe that noose around Meridith’s statue was staged. If racism went away, some people would be out of a job.
Debbie Crenshaw
November 17, 2017 at 1:55 pm
I like part of KD’s comment. Do we know who put the noose around the statue? There is so much misinformation out there now and one has to really investigate multiple sources to find the truth and not someone’s opinions or speculations.
Glad NBC News interviewed a conservative white student along with one from a minority group. No, Ole Miss does not want to play both sides. We want to represent all groups of students here. No white alumni don’t want tragic and horribly wrong traditions to remain.
What OM is doing in contextualizing these statues and buildings is to preserve the history plus add comments which would explain that our university has changed for the better of all. I do not believe in demolishing statues. Some on the liberal side of the aisle want to erase history. I say keep the statues and place a text on them. Remind us that we will learn from the past and move forward to the future so that atrocities will not be repeated. And the definition of racism is: a hated or bigotry towards a race or ethnic group outside your own. That means in any race, there can be people who hate others who are different. We are all God’s children and a university is a place where all voices should be heard.
Bob Beasley
November 17, 2017 at 4:33 pm
The writer should have attended the graduation cerimony in the grove this spring and listened to the guest speaker. He said those who want to hide the past are going to repeat it instead of learning from it. Let’s All move forward into the 21st century.
Jim Hays
November 18, 2017 at 7:38 am
Very good observation. There are many people who would like to see this issue continued. History cannot eliminated or altered. However attempts to do both are ongoing.