tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post2522785511335890424..comments2024-02-25T08:54:26.302-08:00Comments on Eclectic (at Best): December 2, 1969: The Night We Drove Ole Dixie Down -- And Didn’t Even Know ItDan Durninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10639064524903151404noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-43402224033369465872017-08-31T10:43:25.661-07:002017-08-31T10:43:25.661-07:00This was such a great post. Thank you for writing ...This was such a great post. Thank you for writing this. I enjoyed reading it! <br /><br />Correction to a comment made above: The first black admit to the UA was Silas H. Hunt in 1948. No other black students were allowed to attend the university before then. <br /><br />I am a UA alum and was a member of the Razorback Marching Band as a majorette (2009-2012). Go Hogs!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18167437210923376584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-5510775698797290782017-08-25T23:07:10.523-07:002017-08-25T23:07:10.523-07:00I have a clipping from the Arkansas Traveler about...I have a clipping from the Arkansas Traveler about Moratorium activities at the University of Arkansas. It says you were the emcee of a rally held outside of Walker Library beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 15th. The march starting at 4:00 p.m. to the downtown was coordinated by my old junior high school/high school classmate Hal Brown.Dan Durninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10639064524903151404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-41712874726398833862017-08-23T11:14:17.203-07:002017-08-23T11:14:17.203-07:00You darn right the Vietnam Moratorium Resolution p...You darn right the Vietnam Moratorium Resolution passed. I introduced it.Delta Willishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05344989988881122417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-19561965644422688612015-08-20T08:17:00.980-07:002015-08-20T08:17:00.980-07:00Update. The film "The Big Shootout: December ...Update. The film "The Big Shootout: December 6, 1969" was completed and had its world premier on April 13, 2013. A copy of the video can be purchased at https://www.bigshootout/purchase<br />Dan Durninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10639064524903151404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-83969752730552203582015-03-23T17:16:48.916-07:002015-03-23T17:16:48.916-07:00Thanks for your comments. It is always useful to h...Thanks for your comments. It is always useful to hear how different people viewed the decision to quit playing Dixie in 1969. I obviously, as stated in the blog entry, had a much different opinion than you, and the overwhelming majority (2010 supporting playing Dixie and 944 opposing) of students who voted in the referendum. As for the reasons for the decision, since Worthington (likely in consultation with Mullins and others in the administration) made it, he knows better than anyone. I personally doubt it had anything to do with a misunderstanding of when the band started playing Dixie (I certainly never heard that given as a reason) and more to do with the threats to the "Game of the Century," an understanding that the sports teams were integrating and continuing playing the song was untenable, and their own personal views about the propriety of continuing to play a song that had become a strong negative symbol to a significant number of students on campus (and it was not only black students and BAD with that view). Also, the whole Civil Rights movement in the preceding ten years could not be ignored. Best I can tell, students did not vote on which music the band would play, so I was not sure why they would be asked to vote on Dixie and not all of the other songs in the band's repertoire. I guess if we define democracy as the right to vote on such things as the band's music and the theater's plays, the university was sadly lacking. Dan Durninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10639064524903151404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-52199522785289570892015-03-22T16:40:11.042-07:002015-03-22T16:40:11.042-07:00My name is Richard Alan Young and I was a member o... My name is Richard Alan Young and I was a member of the Marching Razorbacks during the football seasons 1963-1967. Many band members wanted to keep playing "Dixie," including me, because part of the request to stop was based on false "information" being circulated at the time (1969.) The false information claimed that the band had started playing "Dixie" to somehow support growing white racism in the 40's or 50's. That's "hog wash!" (yes, I wrote a comic column for the "Traveler.") <br /> First of all, among the students the University's first year (1871) was the university's first African American student, James McGahee, who came from Woodruff County. There were always black Americans (who supported democracy) at the U. of A.!!<br /> As to playing "Dixie," the university band attended Confederate soldier's reunions in Little Rock in the late 1910's and 20's, and the old men asked the band to play "Dixie" for them. That's when it started. <br /> African-American students didn't object to "Dixie" publicly until the 60's. All of us in band were fiercely loyal to "Doc" Worthington and supported his role in stopping the playing of a traditional song that offended a small minority of students. Some of us just didn't like the way the song was eliminated.<br /> [Example: a student vote was held weeks after the game, and students voted 2000 to 500 (rough figures) to keep playing "Dixie." Oddly enough, the organization BAD, which had pushed to end the playing of "Dixie," and had the word "Democracy" in their title, didn't support that democratic vote by students.]<br /> Since this is still a flash-fire topic that instills anger in readers, I'd better stay anonymous. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-15845516127522701732011-05-26T13:05:23.768-07:002011-05-26T13:05:23.768-07:00Story update: A conversation with David Davies, w...Story update: A conversation with David Davies, who was SGA President Jo Martin's chief of staff in 1969, reminded me that she did strongly support the resolution. In fact, she organized the meetings between the student senators and representatives of Black Americans for Democracy. These small group meetings (each with a couple of BAD representatives and a couple of student senators) took place just before the Student Senate convened for its regular meeting. At that meeting, the anti-Dixie resolution was passed. <br /> Also, according to David, the student senate resolution was followed later by a student referendum on the resolution. A majority of students voted against the resolution, that is, against recommending that the UA band quit playing Dixie. The head of the UA band, Dr. Worthington, did not act on the vote.Dan Durninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10639064524903151404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-39889386201327447332011-05-25T13:18:07.018-07:002011-05-25T13:18:07.018-07:00Thanks, Gil. I sure you had more important things ...Thanks, Gil. I sure you had more important things on your mind in the two years before you returned to UA in 1969. The Darryl Brown shooting got only one story in the NW Ark. Times and little coverage elsewhere. I am sure the D. B. you met in '65 is the same person. The biography of Nolan Richardson, Forty Minutes of Hell by Russ Bradburd has a chapter (14) on Darryl Brown's 1965 "walk on" freshman year on UA football team and how he was treated. It does not mention him being shot. Brown went to UA Law School and was a lawyer for decades in Little Rock.Dan Durninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10639064524903151404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-48407154949305147442011-05-25T11:16:59.531-07:002011-05-25T11:16:59.531-07:00Forgot to mention, I remember meeting Darryl Brown...Forgot to mention, I remember meeting Darryl Brown in the fall of '65 during registration. I think it was the same Darryl Brown from this newspaper article. I didn't know he was shot later. I guess you could say I didn't know much at all back then. On so many levels.gil adamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12953068151887595129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-537999101514441161.post-36055453561283820632011-05-25T11:13:01.467-07:002011-05-25T11:13:01.467-07:00Good post, Dan. This fills in a lot of gaps for me...Good post, Dan. This fills in a lot of gaps for me since I had been out of the country for two years previous to this, only to arrive back home just before that game in '69. When I started school in '65 with the rest of our class, I always thought that the fight song we still hear today was one of the better ones in the country and I actually don't remember Dixie being played as a fight song except after a game-changing play. Like you, I can't even think of why it would be connected to the UofA anyway. But like a lot of things back then, it was just the "way it was", without much thought. Good decision that was to end it.gil adamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12953068151887595129noreply@blogger.com