Process Paper
Our project is on stopping the playing of Dixie at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Dixie was the school's fight song, but many considered it to be racist. We chose our topic because we wanted to do something personal that has some importance to Arkansans. This topic is personal because my father was in the Razorback Band in 1969.
We began our research through internet sources on Dixie and the university in the 60's to 70's. We soon realized that without much information on the internet, we would need information from other places. My father’s connection with the university gave us many contacts who were primary sources to the event. These interviews provided us with new information and different perspectives. Several people we interviewed gave us extra sources such as letters, books and newspaper articles. We chose the most relevant information from the many primary sources, including direct quotations. We tried our very best not to exceed the 1,200 word limit on our website, which was very challenging. Another challenge was limiting the audio and video clips to 45 seconds. We did not realize this when we interviewed the people and could not re-interview since they lived elsewhere. After the state competition, we discovered an unpublished documentary about the Big Shootout and got permission to use interview transcripts. We also interviewed a Civil Rights expert to provide information about how Dixie fits into Civil Rights.
The reason we selected the website category is because we wanted to be able to share this topic with the world. Had we done any other project category, no one would really get to see it. We thought this was the best way to spread awareness of the topic. We created our project through the NHD Weebly website. We wrote the information to go on our website after we sorted the sources provided to us. We painstakingly combed through every interview, looking for the specific information and answers we wanted on our website. We put what we thought was most important to the topic on their respective pages. We looked for pictures and other things to make our message clearer and make the website aesthetically pleasing. After winning the state competition, we added a timeline of articles, more images, and direct quotations.
This topic relates to the theme in many ways. The revolution is the fact that Dixie was stopped after the long rule of the racist tradition. Stopping the song from being played was a mild revolution compared to some events of the time (Vietnam War, Civil Rights, hippie culture), but it created strong reaction from students, the student council, faculty, administration and many other people present during the time of the incident. The reform in this project is the fact that the song was not to be played again and that a new tradition was started with a new fight song that is still continued to this day.
We began our research through internet sources on Dixie and the university in the 60's to 70's. We soon realized that without much information on the internet, we would need information from other places. My father’s connection with the university gave us many contacts who were primary sources to the event. These interviews provided us with new information and different perspectives. Several people we interviewed gave us extra sources such as letters, books and newspaper articles. We chose the most relevant information from the many primary sources, including direct quotations. We tried our very best not to exceed the 1,200 word limit on our website, which was very challenging. Another challenge was limiting the audio and video clips to 45 seconds. We did not realize this when we interviewed the people and could not re-interview since they lived elsewhere. After the state competition, we discovered an unpublished documentary about the Big Shootout and got permission to use interview transcripts. We also interviewed a Civil Rights expert to provide information about how Dixie fits into Civil Rights.
The reason we selected the website category is because we wanted to be able to share this topic with the world. Had we done any other project category, no one would really get to see it. We thought this was the best way to spread awareness of the topic. We created our project through the NHD Weebly website. We wrote the information to go on our website after we sorted the sources provided to us. We painstakingly combed through every interview, looking for the specific information and answers we wanted on our website. We put what we thought was most important to the topic on their respective pages. We looked for pictures and other things to make our message clearer and make the website aesthetically pleasing. After winning the state competition, we added a timeline of articles, more images, and direct quotations.
This topic relates to the theme in many ways. The revolution is the fact that Dixie was stopped after the long rule of the racist tradition. Stopping the song from being played was a mild revolution compared to some events of the time (Vietnam War, Civil Rights, hippie culture), but it created strong reaction from students, the student council, faculty, administration and many other people present during the time of the incident. The reform in this project is the fact that the song was not to be played again and that a new tradition was started with a new fight song that is still continued to this day.
Copyright Zoe Tollette and Samantha Fish 2012