espn 30 for 30: Ghosts of Ole Miss

CrimsonCrusade

1st Team
Nov 9, 2011
524
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0
Cookeville, TN
Frankly, I enjoyed the film, and as a social studies teacher, I always love it when films basically make the audience answer the question. Additionally, I always learn a lot from these films since I'm from California, and I'm always wanting to learn more about Southern history. There's no doubt that the South was a major stage for the civil rights movement, but it wasn't the only stage. The civil rights movement occurred all across the major areas of the U.S.

I do want to ask - what are y'alls thoughts on the song Dixie? I don't really see anything wrong with the current lyrics (apparently they've been changed a lot since the original song debuted during the Civil War), but are there really people against the song because of its original targets?
The Confederacy should be honored for its courage, not tarnished by the brush of political correctness. That is every bit as much a part of Southern heritage as the Gold Rush is part of Californian heritage.

I'm not at all ashamed of the Confederacy. I take immense pride in it and the valor and tenacity exhibited by its fighting men, including one of my ancestors. They fought for home and state's rights, not just for slavery. American history idolizes the signers of the Constitution, who were almost unanimously slaveholders and who did not address the issue of slavery, but bastardizes the Confederacy for its relationship to slavery. Only the uneducated and the conformists are fooled by this double-standard.
 
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CapstoneTider

Suspended
Dec 6, 2000
7,453
6
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Yes I watched it, for sure I recommend it, it's history.
I am glad that they gave Ole Miss alum a chance to speak of their views today. The old Governor takes the price in how to start a riot.

Was very good, but would have rather seen it on the History channel than ESPN since it was about a student trying to get in school, not on the football team.
 

CaliforniaTide

All-American
Aug 9, 2006
3,618
14
57
Huntsville, AL
The Confederacy should be honored for its courage, not tarnished by the brush of political correctness. That is every bit as much a part of Southern heritage as the Gold Rush is part of Californian heritage.

I'm not at all ashamed of the Confederacy. I take immense pride in it and the valor and tenacity exhibited by its fighting men, including one of my ancestors. They fought for home and state's rights, not just for slavery. American history idolizes the signers of the Constitution, who were almost unanimously slaveholders and who did not address the issue of slavery, but bastardizes the Confederacy for its relationship to slavery. Only the uneducated and the conformists are fooled by this double-standard.
I totally agree. To me, the bigger issue of the Civil War was the role of the federal government vs. role of the state government. As a solution a cheap labor force, it's been my opinion that slavery was actually on the downslide (not the first time either) in the South, one reason why many Southerners were so adamant about being allowed to expand slavery into the territories at the time. But continuing slavery in the form it was in at the time required new/fresh land for the farmers, which was draining the nutrients out of the land in the Deep South.

There's a city in the SW part of the Central Valley called Taft; it was a big oil town. The city actually had an ordinance that there were no blacks allowed to live within the city limits. However, many of the blacks in the area were working in the refineries in Taft. Nearby, the city of Wasco was established by blacks so that they at least had a place to live. This example is one of many in regards to how California and its cities dealt with segregation during the 1900s.
 

TidePride50

3rd Team
Jan 16, 2010
296
0
0
The Confederacy should be honored for its courage, not tarnished by the brush of political correctness. That is every bit as much a part of Southern heritage as the Gold Rush is part of Californian heritage.

I'm not at all ashamed of the Confederacy. I take immense pride in it and the valor and tenacity exhibited by its fighting men, including one of my ancestors. They fought for home and state's rights, not just for slavery. American history idolizes the signers of the Constitution, who were almost unanimously slaveholders and who did not address the issue of slavery, but bastardizes the Confederacy for its relationship to slavery. Only the uneducated and the conformists are fooled by this double-standard.
You and I would get along great.
 

CapstoneTider

Suspended
Dec 6, 2000
7,453
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I am glad they went into a little bit of why the university decided to keep their association with the rebel flag and call themselves the Rebels. This is really profound, but is marginalized due to being on the losing side.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Mississippi
With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, classes were interrupted when the entire student body from Ole Miss enlisted in the Confederate army. Their company, Company A, 11th Mississippi Infantry, was nicknamed the University Grey's , and suffered a 100% casualty rate during the Civil War. A great number of those casualties occurred during Pickets Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, when the University Greys made the deepest encroachment into Union territory. Some of the soldiers actually crossed the Union defensive fortification wall, only to be killed, wounded or captured. On the very next day, July 4, Confederate forces surrender at Vicksburg the two battles together are commonly viewed as the turning point in the war. When Ole Miss re-opened, only one member of the University Greys was able to visit the university to address the student body.
 

BamaMTA06

All-SEC
Sep 9, 2007
1,911
12
57
I'm a black male that was born and raised in the south. I don't care about southern heritage or tradition. I love the University of Alabama. I'm very proud of the two degrees I hold. However, I really don't care about any tradition that occurred prior to the integration of the university. I don't care to hear the song Dixie nor do I care to the see the confederate flag. I honestly don't understand how black students attend Ole Miss. To me that flag and southern pride is a reminder of the stories I was told of family members being lynched by KKK carrying that same flag or other family members beaten, sprayed with water, and bitten by dogs soley b/c they wanted to be treated as equals. I don't have much faith that my people and family members would have been afforded certain rights and treatments if not for "outside agitators." I'm not one that really cares much for state's rights. I understand why some will want to honor the confederacy. I get it. I need those same people to understand why I don't care about the confederacy or care to celebrate southern pride.
 
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GrayTide

Hall of Fame
Nov 15, 2005
18,810
6,245
187
Greenbow, Alabama
I finally got to see this piece and I must say it was very well done. Like all historical events, if you were not alive during those times it is almost impossible to understand the world that existed at that time. I remember all of that happening but was not aware or, due to failing memory, did not recall that much violence.
 

CapstoneTider

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Dec 6, 2000
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I finally got to see this piece and I must say it was very well done. Like all historical events, if you were not alive during those times it is almost impossible to understand the world that existed at that time. I remember all of that happening but was not aware or, due to failing memory, did not recall that much violence.
Ghost of Mississippi is definitely from a distant time. In today's curriculum the founding fathers position on slavery is given the same weight as their religious views and personal life.
All races in America will be minorities in the next 20 years. At that time we will need to be a true color blind nation when it comes to the ballet boxes or we will have problems. Don't want to end up like Hapsburg.
 

CrimsonEyeshade

Hall of Fame
Nov 6, 2007
5,402
1,503
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As a piece of history, Ghosts of Mississippi is excellent, but the bridge to the football team and all that it supposedly overcane was a bridge too far. The campus was torn apart for about two weeks. Then it was 99.99 percent on one side and Meredith on the other. At that point, the film falls into the trap of too much of Southern history: tragic but selectively parsed and oversentimentalized.

I would love to see Wright do a piece on the 1963 Mississippi State basketball team. In that case a university president and his basketball coach ignored a governor and a state legislature, risked jail,sneaked the team out of state and knocked down the boogie man of playing an integrated opponent in the NCAA tournament.
 

Housedividedby3

BamaNation Citizen
Feb 3, 2011
54
0
0
TriCounty, if you have Xfinity onDemand, it will be available til Dec 1 under ESPN's films. I hope you get to see it because it truly is remarkable. RTR
 
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