In a letter to the Ole Miss Community Tuesday, Chancellor Jones has asked the band to stop playing the song “From Dixie With Love” at all athletic events.
Jones made the decision in response to the continued chanting of the controversial phrase “The South Will Rise Again” during Saturday’s game versus Northern Arizona.
“To those who have called on others to desist from the chant and to those who have responded by stopping, please accept our appreciation.Yet some have chosen to continue the chant. Sadly, we have also heard from a few outside our university who support the chant as an expression of values associated with a segregationist movement discredited so many years ago.”
The chant and the chancellor’s response in the past weeks has garnered regional and even national media attention. Supporters of the chant clamored to Ole Miss to encourage students to continue to chant “The South Will Rise Again.” Robert Barrett, a white nationalist and self-proclaimed leader of the national Skinhead movement, was in the Grove Saturday to offer his support of the controversial chant.
The movement comes just 4 days before Ole Miss nationally televised football game with Tennessee. There are unconfirmed reports that members of the Klu Klux Klan will be present to protest the Chancellor’s decision among other issues.
