The name of the marching band for my alma mater Mexico High School in Mexico, MO is the Dixie Gray Band. The song I Wish I Was in Dixie was the unofficial marching tune for the Confederate army and was played at the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as Confederate president. The uniforms of the Confederate army were gray in color. The name was coined in 1951, a time when many Confederate monuments were going up all over the South to quell the burgeoning Civil Rights movement.

This name glorifies the traitorous slave-owners of the Confederacy and should be relegated to Missouri's racist past. In fact, although Missouri was a border state in the Civil War, officially it was part of the Union. Naming a high school band after the South’s soldiers is tantamount to hanging a Confederate flag in the gym.

What does this name say to the African American students whose ancestors were stolen from their homes and brought to our country in chains? How can they feel safe in and proud of a school that celebrates the people that went to war against their own country to keep them enslaved? It is shameful in this era to keep a name that is representative of the systemic racism and oppression of people of color in this country.

Mexico High School students deserve a band whose name embraces students of all races. Please join in asking the Mexico School Board to change the name of the Dixie Gray Band to something that honors EVERY student and alumnus.