University of Mississippi Ballot Initiative Aims To Bring Back Ole Miss’ Confederate Mascot, The 2014 elections are barely gone, but some Mississippi groups are already gearing up for a 2016 fight over a ballot initiative involving official religions, languages, and the state’s Confederate history. According to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, one Mississippi group has begun a drive to put an initiative on the 2016 ballot that would establish English as the state’s official language, Christianity as its official religion, and a Confederate Heritage Month that would mandate its Confederate history be taught in public schools across the state.
The initiative aims to re-establish significant parts of Mississippi’s Confederate heritage, from flying the Stars and Bars over the state capitol building to mandating that the song “Dixie” be played after the national anthem at public events. In addition, it takes up the cause of one of the more iconic symbols of the Confederacy in the state: the University of Mississippi’s use of Colonel Reb, which depicts an old plantation owner, as the mascot of its athletic teams.
The Clarion-Ledger reports: It also includes multiple provisions regarding the state’s universities. State universities Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi University for Women and Mississippi Valley State University would not be permitted to merge or consolidate. If passed, the University of Mississippi’s on-field mascot would once again become “Colonel Reb” and the song “Dixie” would be played by the university. The initiative would also secure the existing mascots and traditions of Mississippi State University and University of Southern Mississippi.
The issue of Confederate symbolism has been a pertinent and contentious one at Ole Miss, and it has drawn both local controversy and national attention. Ole Miss in 1997 banned Confederate flags from its football games; later, it nixed Colonel Reb’s status as the school’s official mascot and prohibited the school band from playing the song “From Dixie With Love.” Those decisions, as USA Today’s Dan Wolken detailed earlier this year, were made in an effort to re-brand the school and its history but have “drawn significant backlash from students and alumni who accused the school’s leadership of sacrificing sacred traditions in the name of political correctness.” Even as the school won’t let him into football games, students still traditionally dress as Colonel Reb for pre-game tailgates.
In 2003, when the university took Colonel Reb off the sidelines, a student government poll found that 94 percent of students wanted to keep him around. According to the Colonel Reb foundation, Ole Miss allowed a new mascot, named Colonel Too, to roam the stands from 2004 to 2009 before it banned him from sporting events too.
Previous efforts to bring back the mascot have been unsuccessful. A 2011 initiative that would have re-established Colonel Reb’s place on the sidelines of Vaught-Heimingway Stadium failed. So too did a legislative effort to put him back on the field. Those failures, though, led to this broader effort, spearheaded by a former local Tea Party leader, to include the other provisions to widen the initiative’s popularity.
According to the Clarion-Ledger, the petition drive needs 107,216 signatures from Mississippi residents over the next year in order for it to make the 2016 ballot.
