The fall of the Confederacy was 1865. Too bad it took the University of Mississippi until 2003 to get rid of its Colonel Reb mascot — a characterization of a white plantation owner.
On Tuesday, Ole Miss students will vote online to either replace their former colonel with another mascot or remain the only school in the Southeastern Conference without one, The Associated Press reports.
Ole Miss has a strong football following, and school pride and tradition has been an issue for fans over the past seven years.
"We're tired of having nothing to represent us," junior Josh Hinton, a member of the Associated Student Body that approved the voting resolution, told the AP. "We've gotten our song taken away. We want to have some kind of tradition back."
The school has worked to get rid of the old traditions associated with the Confederate South. In 1997, Confederate flag-waving was banned at sporting events, and last year, the band was instructed to stop playing the fight song "From Dixie with Love," which prompted the fan chant, "The South will rise again."
School officials, namely athletic directors and coaches, encouraged the college to move away from the radical Southern image because it hurt recruiting.
Sophomore Koriann Porter gathered more than 1,700 signatures from students in favor of a new mascot. She explained that Ole Miss embodies a "utopian society," having clubs that celebrate diversity. Fifteen percent of the 18,344 school population is black.
Not everyone supports the change. Among the diversity groups, there is also a Colonel Reb Foundation urging students to vote against a new mascot. The Colonel Reb is still seen throughout campus on school merchandise. Fans continue to fly the Mississippi state flag with its Confederate battle emblem, and the team is still nicknamed the Rebels.
"The majority of students I talked to feel they'd rather have no mascot if they can't have Colonel Reb, and that's going to be evident," said senior Hannah Loy, a member of the Colonel Reb Foundation.
According to the Daily Mississippian's guide, if students vote for a new mascot, the entire student body will take part in the process. Some talk is circulating about adopting the cardinal as the new school symbol after the Cardinal Club, a school spirit organization that began in 1927 and recently was revived. Other possibilities include a riverboat gambler or colonial solider.
The school has clearly stated they will not reinstate the Colonel Reb, so Old Miss may remain without a mascot depending on the voting results.
