Posted on 12/18/2004 10:02:21 AM PST by Ellesu
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- From a renamed "Confederate Boulevard" in Arkansas to the shrunken "Heart of Dixie" on Alabama's license plates, some in the South are erasing memories of their Civil War pasts with the hope of enticing investment. "Business people and tourists don't know what to think about slavery, elitism, the Civil War," says Ted Ownby of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. "So one way is to give them an easy out. We'll change the name of this building, this street, change this display."
Over the last few years, more and more Confederate roots seem to be vanishing around the South. At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., last year, the school dropped "Confederate" from Confederate Memorial Hall. The University of Mississippi dropped "Colonel Rebel" as its on-field mascot. Georgia downsized, and then eventually removed a Confederate symbol from its state flag. And South Carolina's NAACP has been boycotting business in that state since 2000 in hopes of removing the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds.
In Little Rock, the Confederate Boulevard change came just before the opening of the Clinton Library. In Alabama, "Heart of Dixie" was made smaller on the license plates in favor of specialty plates that bring in dollars for special interests.
John Shelton Reed, a professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of the American South, says the trend is clear, and business interests coupled with concern from the African-American community are the catalysts.
"Businesses named Dixie this and Dixie that, there are fewer of them than there used to be," Shelton says. "If you're a businessperson, why do you want a name that's going to raise anybody's hackles?"
Ownby says that Southern heritage's effect on business has been an issue since the Civil Rights movement.
"Little Rock, Birmingham, Selma, immediately after something horrible happened in those places, it was for a few years almost impossible to do business," Ownby says.
Jim Dailey, the mayor of Little Rock, says the Confederate Boulevard sign was changed after city officials noted that it was often the first thing visitors saw after arriving at the Little Rock airport. With the world's eyes on the opening of the Clinton Library, and with millions of tourism dollars at stake, the city opted for a different first impression.
So what exactly is the contention? Why do the stars and bars and the word "Confederate" upset so many, while others are so adamant to protect them?
"It seems to be glorifying elitism, racism and slavery," Ownby says. "It seems to celebrate one part of the community at the expense of the other."
Not so, says Ron Casteel, chief of staff for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He calls the removal of rebel reminders a "disgusting trend" that can be pinned on political correctness.
"We honor everyone else's traditions and heritage, why should we discriminate against Confederate heritage?" Casteel says. "It is now a politically correct thing to do to erase Confederate symbols, Confederate street names, anything that is attached to something that is very much a part of political history."
But Ownby says out-of-town investors want to visit a South that isn't mired in the past. Many Southern tourist regions, like Mississippi's Gulf Coast, make special efforts to see that the atmosphere is war-free.
"They want to offer an image of a place of ease and peace, without people angry at each other," Ownby says.
Larry Griffin, a sociology and history professor at the University of North Carolina, says the South has simply become too diverse to identify with the symbols of its rebel past.
"Could these particular symbols truly represent the Southern people when they have such an extraordinary diversity?" Griffin says. "I don't believe that these kinds of symbols can represent truly a people, now of many hues, many colors and many faiths."
Historians say that it seems white Northerners are happy to let the South hash the problem out themselves, until money becomes involved.
"The white North appears to be letting the white South determine its own meaning," Griffin says. "If the symbols became so divisive that nuts and bolts economics were damaged, if there were boycotts ... the way to handle it is to get rid of the symbol, not permitting public authority to display the battle flag."
However, Griffin also argues that these symbols shouldn't be forgotten, just placed in context.
"We don't want to rewrite the past so moments are silenced or hidden," Griffin says. "The past needs to be observed and engaged, warts and all. There are places that would be proper sites for these kinds of symbols. It could be in a museum, in a national park or any of the Civil War battlefields."
Well into the 1890s French Colonial armies in Africa took slaves among the natives they were fighting. Officials in Paris frowned on it, but did not stop slaving. The usual practice in the French Foreign Legion was not to send whole units from North Africa to fight campaigns in Sub-saharan Africa, but to ask for volunteers to form Battalions de Marche (spelling?). One factor used to get volunteers for brutal campaigns in fever ridden areas was the prospect of each soldier being awarded with numerous slaves. The women could be raped with impunity, and the men used as beasts of burden. Once the fighting was over and the surviving soldiers went back to their home posts the slaves were sold and the proceeds amounted to a de facto campaign bonus.
Fly it proud brother!
And Ben finally got his wish: to be in the infantry. Hell he even got a medal before he went.
Southern by the grace of God.
And their hero Sergeant King got to go with them!
And he was: "the best danged Sergeant in the whole danged A'r Force".
The Sudan still practices slavery on grand scale to this very day, and many Arab scoundrels continued to trade in African slaves for many decades after the American Civil War.
I'm down here in Northern Alabama on business travel.
I went to an indoor flea market to kill some time.
Tables full of Confederate flags,belt buckles,underwear,t-shirts,shorts,wall hangings,rugs,license plate holders,Bed Spreads,you name it...etc
and a few Elvis and NASCAR items too. ;-)
In a few years they'll be trying to erase the symbols that represent the American people too because of our "extraordinary diversity."
Uh-oh. You've just provided the links to the obviously racist, confederate flag supporting band that will be playing at Bush's inaguration. (Any blacks who play in that band are obvious Uncle and Auntie Toms)
NAACP, Sharpton, Jackson, MSM, et al, will be all over this like flies on doo-doo.
Uh-oh. You've just provided the links to the obviously racist, confederate flag supporting band that will be playing at Bush's inaguration. (Any blacks who play in that band are obvious Uncle and Auntie Toms)
NAACP, Sharpton, Jackson, MSM, et al, will be all over this like flies on doo-doo.
Bring it On! LOL.
Have you forgotten about all the church arsons which occurred in Arkansas during the 1950's? They were reponsible for shaping Bill Clinton's character, you know.
yes....and the rash of chruch burnings while Clinton was president.
The South's evil knows no limits...lol
in point of fact, i fly the 5x8 THIRD NATIONAL 24/365 at my place AND i can't afford the flags & PARTICULIARLY the 30-ft POLES to do all of them.
free dixie,sw
THOSE church arsons???
free dixie,sw
Gen. Forrest bump.
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