Between Ole Miss and Me

10.31.15 12:02 AM ET
Stuart Stevens

I grew up cheering for the Confederate flag ... The University Mascot, Colonel Reb, led the team out with raised sword and we fans in the stadium, all white back then, would stand and wave our Confederate flags ... At halftime, the Ole Miss band paraded in Confederate battle gray uniforms ... The highlight of every game was the band’s mournful rendition of “Dixie” ...

On September 28th, 1962 .. at the half time of the Ole Miss versus Kentucky game, Governor Ross Barnett gave a fiery speech urging resistance to the Federal government’s forced integration of the University of Mississippi. It was the first time my dad and I didn’t stay until the end of a Rebel game ...

I can’t remember exactly when I realized that the Confederate flag was something more than the team flag of my beloved Ole Miss Rebels. Looking back, I now understand why when I went away to summer camp, my mother would take down the Confederate flag I’d pin on my wall next to pictures of my favorite Rebel players. I had an Ole Miss hat, sort of a cross between a baseball hat and a newsboy cap that I wore to bed most nights. It had a Confederate flag on it next to Colonel Reb. I always wanted to wear that hat to school but somehow I never made it out of the house with it ...

In that most southern university in our most southern state, the Mississippi state flag is now locked away, waiting a better day to rise again. Unlike the integration of Ole Miss, it wasn’t lowered by the edict of Federal judges backed by the force of 30,000 troops. This was students trying to work through the most difficult problem that we as Americans face. As Mississippians, we’re still a long way from what we’d like to be but I suspect this day will be one that is looked back upon with pride. Well done.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/31/between-ole-miss-and-me.html