That's just plain stupid.
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."
Yep. Renaming the streets will make it like it didn't happen. Good idea!
Man these liberals are geniuses.
Might interest you.
Yup. Pretty soon they'll (maybe) talk about the document that preceeded the Constitution, y'know, the Articles of ion. (Confederat(e) removed to assuage nonsensical sensibilities)
I am offended by the color purple. As are many others. We refuse to do business with anyone sporting purple. Ban Purple Now! ;)
Missippy ping needed here.
Missippy ping
Thank you. ;o)
I heard the blacks were going to boycott Heaven
if the "Street of Gold" wasn't renamed MLK Blvd.
LOL! You are TOO funny. ;o)
Yeah I am happy with our Georgia state flag, but not the way it came about with the last demoncrat governor barnes meddling in things, a committee came up with that eyesore flag that came before it, it was a concession to liberals who want their stupid minions to believe that a flag with a 19th century emblem is somehow detrimental to their present day lives...
Desperate and stupid symbolic gesture.
That's just plain stupid.
It's still Delta Drive to me. They can call it what they like.
I don't think what happened in Little Rock compares to the Birmingham church bombing.
Why do these folks harp on nonsensical blackwashing of the past and ignore the modern world collpasing around arguably most of them?
Is that easier, more political or all they can do?
They will soon start naming "Nat Turner" Avenues as symbols of Black revolt against White oppression.
This story is enough to make you want to go buy some groceries at Winn Dixie.
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