Stopping Dixie at the University Of Arkansas
“It seems it is not the words in ‘Dixie’ which are deplorable to black students (and to those of us among whites who want a new South—one in which ‘old times there’ are indeed forgotten) so much as the response the song
draws forth.” --Barbara Wink, Southern Students Organizing Committee letter to Dr. Worthington, Band Director |
In 1969 during the Civil Rights and Vietnam time periods, a revolution was starting at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. The minority races were trying to stop the playing of Dixie. Dixie was the fight song of the University and had a racist background. Stopping Dixie may seem like a simple thing, but those who were trying to stop it encountered many difficulties, including death threats, a shooting, and many misunderstandings.
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University of Arkansas Band Photo, 1972
Source: Full Band 1972
Source: Full Band 1972
“What do the black band members do while Dixie is being played? Do they stand idle?”
--David F. Perkins in letter to the editor “'Dixie' Issue"
--David F. Perkins in letter to the editor “'Dixie' Issue"
Interviews with band members Sanford Tollette and Nathanial Thomas on not playing Dixie in Band
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"Most of the pep rallies were really pretty good before the stopping of Dixie. What I would do when they played Dixie and a lot of the black band members would do is that we would just take our horn down and not play the song. That would be our personal protest. There was nothing we could do at that time before the Student Senate voted it down and so what we would do is you know just have our horns, some of us had our horns up to our mouth and act like we were doing it. And I would specifically just take my horn down." --Sanford Tollette |
"Basically, I was in the band but didn’t play it. I did not make a big deal of it. But it was just something that was done quietly. And nobody else made any big deal about it. It was no big deal regardless of what you chose to do as far as a band member. Roughly ’68, I guess, I decided that I had played it enough and decided the school had played it enough. And so I stopped." --Nathaniel Thomas |
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