Alabama is Dixie’s football pride! We have won 18 national titles and 28 SEC conference titles. Our fight song is a key part of our identity as Alabama students, fans, and faculty. It stretches back even before the time of Bear Bryant all the way to 1926 and all the way through the 6 national championships Nick Saban has brought us so far.

Recently, the Crimson White has reported that a coalition of students and faculty are working to change our fight song. They claim that the word “Dixie” is racist. The word Dixie has nothing to do with racism. It has everything to do with being proud of where you’re from. Dixie is nothing more than a synonym for the South with the connotation of home for millions of people. If we have to do away with Dixie in our fight song, then surely they’ll try to do away with Dixieland Delight next, eroding one Alabama tradition after another, an outcome most every fan would oppose.

Detrimental to this coalition’s argument that the term Dixie is racist, one must consider the following. Abraham Lincoln, the man who was responsible for the end of slavery, was a fan of the song “Dixie”, and played it during his inauguration and after the surrender of Robert E. Lee. If the term Dixie was so linked to the Confederacy and slavery, then surely President Lincoln would not have been a fan of the song titled “Dixie”.

As Alabama fans, students, faculty, and as Americans with common sense, it is time we make our voices heard and stand up to this coalition of radicals who believe that Dixie is a racist term linked to slavery. Thank you for taking the time to read this petition and Roll Tide!