University of Virginia Library

Readers Respond To Discouragement Of 'Dixie'

We have received no less than 14
letters protesting in one fashion or
another the Student Council's resolution
regarding "Dixie." We are
grateful to their authors for taking
the time and effort to write them,
but we regret that space limitations
prevent our publishing more than a
few. - ed.

'Land Of Cotton'

"I wish I was in the land of
cotton, ol' times there are not
forgotten..." Student Council has
said that these strains may no
longer be sung or played at football
games at U.Va. Since we have only
three "rousing, fight songs," one of
which is "Dixie," what do you plan
to "run in as a substitute?" Perhaps
it is possible that, though this song
is identified with the Civil War,
"Dixie" was written by someone
who liked the South for its leisurely
and highly romanticized way of life
and did not expect later generations
to read "racist overtones" between
the lines instead of accepting the
song in the same vein as one accepts
"God Bless America."

By the way, Gentlemen of the
Council, this war song with its
"racist overtones" was written, as
we all know, by Daniel Decatur
Emmett, born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio
... a Negro.

Overdue Motion

I would like to personally
applaud the recent passing of the
long overdue motion by the Student
Council urging the University
Band and WUVA to terminate the
playing of "Dixie" and also to
respond to Mr. Randy Norton's
expostulating its ramification. It is
quite apparent that many University
students are willing to prune
the rosebush for beautification as
long as they are not pricked by its
thorns during the process. "Dixie"
has always been and always will be
a symbol of racism and is consequently
insulting to black students
and the black community. Contrary
to Mr. Norton's example, James
Brown's "Say It Loud - I'm Black
and I'm Proud" is often sung by
racists and is for him (and other
whites) symbolic of the Black's
racism, and for this reason I
sympathize with him. However, my
sympathy is curtailed by the fact
that the Blacks at the University
and in Charlottesville were denied
the pleasure of hearing it on
WUVA, WELK, WINA, WCHV
(with the exception of the "Rocco
Show," and other stations. Yet, Mr.
Norton and others must not be
denied the pleasure of hearing that
grand old "Dixie." Alors, c'est
mauvais aussi! I have attended a
few of Virginia's games and have
enjoyed most of them up until my
soul was shaken and shattered by
"Dixie." It's saddening that I can
not reap all the pleasures that Mr.
Norton receives.

The atmosphere at the University
will continue to implicate
racism as long as people like Mr.
Norton are not willing to sacrifice
such immense pleasures. Obviously,
he and others here are not aware
that if the 11 Proposals are to be
implemented, and (more importantly)
if a significant number of
black students are to be enticed
into Mr. Jefferson's "academical
village," it will take more than their
appearances at two demonstrations.

Song Of Pride

I read with great disbelief, in
Wednesday's Cavalier Daily, that
the Student Council has passed a
resolution calling for the end of the
playing of "Dixie" by the University
Band and WUVA. I am
appalled that the Council finds it
necessary to dig so deeply for a new
issue in their current anti-racist
campaign. Perhaps it never occurred
to the members of that august body
that supplementing their crusade
with absurdities lends a note of
discredibility to all of their efforts.
There seem to be enough concrete
problems deserving of consideration
to preclude the necessity of manufacturing
issues.

I hail from the far North, and I
had lived in upstate New York my
entire life before coming to the
University. Many things have impressed
me both favorably and
unfavorably since I arrived at
Virginia. One of those things which
I have found most likable in the
South is the intense regional pride
its inhabitants possess. Dixie, sir, is
an outgrowth of that pride, if Mr.
Sherman will allow me the right to
state my opinion. Any racial
overtones must be supplied by the
individual. The Negro is part of the
heritage of the South, and if he
hopes to become fully integrated
force in the future South, he should
not shun that heritage. Dixie is a
song of pride, of joy, of hope. Take
your bogus issues elsewhere,
great leaders.

Black Recruitment

I've just come back from presenting
a lecture at Rice University,
where I had an opportunity to
observe a phenomenon which, to
my mind, is quite as important as
the current controversy raging there
over the choice of a new president.
It is the phenomenon of faculty
assistance in the recruiting of
low-income and black students.
Faculty members alone, on a total
budget of two-thousand dollars
have increased by sevenfold the
number of applications by black
students at Rice. Last year Rice
received applications from about
fourteen qualified black students.
This year, under the new program,
it already has received more than a
hundred such applications. Please
note that these are not inadmissible
students, who require a special
program. They are students directly
admissible and qualified to receive
financial assistance at a southern
institution whose undergraduate
admissions standards are at least as
high as those of this University's. (I
am told that the average board
score for those admitted to Rice is
about 675.) This has been accomplished
by faculty trips to high
schools in many areas of the deep
South, and the experience of these
faculty recruiters has set to rest
once and for all the myth that all
the really qualified black students
go to Yale or Harvard. Many of the
students who will be admitted to
Rice next year had not even
planned to take the College Boards
(which normally cost $14 dollars to
take, but which can be administered
gratis to low income students
under a plan instituted this year.)

The key element in the Rice
experience is that recruiters from
the faculty are more numerous than
admission people and can thus
canvass personally a much larger
number of high schools, over a
much wider geographical area. Very
often, for example, the faculty
recruiters can canvass very distant
high schools at no cost to themselves
or the institution, when they
combine their recruiting activities
with their professional trips. I am
confident that the University would
try to underwrite the travel expenses
of faculty recruiters, since the
example of Rice has demonstrated
how much can be accomplished on
an allocation of two thousand
dollars. I do know that Mr. Ern, our
Dean of Admissions, would welcome
faculty help. All interested
members of the faculty should give
their names to Mr. Ern.

Coalition Viewpoint

At Robert Kennedy's funeral, he
was eulogized by his brother Ted
with the words, "Some people see
things as they are and ask 'Why?'; I
dream of things that never were and
ask 'why not."'

Two weeks ago, the students of
the University dreamed of things
that never were and asked the
administration, "Why not?"

But it seems to me that no
longer are these dreams the issue.
At the 1964 Republican convention,
Barry Goldwater uttered the
words, "Extremism in the pursuit
of liberty is no vice," and I'm quite
sure most liberals cringed at the
thought that a man with this
philosophy could be elected as our
President.

Signs of extremism have made
themselves apparent in the last few
days. In Friday's Cavalier Daily, the
black students have promised more
than words, the white students have
promised a year of demonstration.

What I am questioning here, is
that, can extremism be justified
because it comes from the left.
Barry Goldwater's campaign slogan
was "In your heart you know he's
right." It seems that the student
coalition has adopted this viewpoint.

What is dangerous here is the
unwillingness to compromise, a fact
clearly indicated by Robert Rosen's
answer to President Shannon.

I agree that the goals of the
coalition are just, but I only hope
that the cost of these goals is not so
great that in the end we will have to
ask ourselves, "Were we really
right?"