Hanover won’t whistle ‘Dixie’

To hear some newcomers to Hanover County, Virginia, tell it, “Dixie” is a five-letter four-letter word.

They want to change the county’s annual Civil War commemoration from “Dixie Days” to something else, to avoid, among other things, offending Yankees who have moved into the county.

Dixie cups are probably OK, concedes one county official, but not “Dixie” that reminds everyone of, well, the South.

Jamelle Wilson, a member of an advisory panel reviewing the annual event, told a public gathering earlier this month that “Dixie Days” is “problematic” and that calling a Civil War commemoration by that name “tends to represent the past.” If “Dixie” remains, the county schools shouldn’t promote or endorse it, she said.

But a war, so far fairly civil, is brewing.

Grayson Jennings, commander of the Cold Harbor Guards Camp division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans of Virginia, would rather hold the commemoration on private property or even outside Hanover County, than change the name from Dixie Days.

“It’s our event. We can call it what we want,” Mr. Jennings says. “This is our heritage. We are not changing the name.”

The advisory panel has suggested three new names, including “Civil War Days.”

Some residents, county officials say, find “Dixie Days” offensive and a symbol of slavery and racism.

“The Hanover County community is changing rapidly with many newcomers that may be offended by the name,” Ms. Wilson said.

The 18-member advisory panel, which does not have the final say on the event’s title, has invited organizers to testify at a meeting Sept. 26. The county’s Parks and Recreation Department will make a decision in January after organizers submit their application to hold Dixie Days in 2006.

The panel, made up of county residents and county government and school officials, asked another group to change the title of its event for a minor technical reason.

Brad Ashley, director of the county’s Parks and Recreation Department, says organizers of the “Hanover Tomato Festival and Heritage Day” changed its name to the “Hanover Tomato Festival” because they still celebrate tomatoes but no longer celebrate their heritage.

This year, Dixie Days was held the first weekend in May in the county’s Pole Green Park. It featured heritage booths for children and a re-enactment of the Battle of Bethesda Church.

Mr. Jennings, the descendant of two Confederate soldiers, says Dixie Days was “a place for the local kids to come and celebrate their Southern heritage.”

Story Continues →