Ghosts of Ole Miss

I have really enjoyed ESPN's 30-30 films.  I watch almost everyone, regardless of my interest in the subject.  ESPN has done a fascinating job of telling a sports story that many of us have never heard of.  They teach history, they teach sports, they tell stories.  It really is excellent.  Its hard to pick a favorite of the bunch, and I am really looking forward to the one on Bo Jackson.  He was one of my favorite athletes when I was a kid.

Last weeks episode was on Ole Miss and 1962.  This was the year that Ole Miss went undefeated on the football field but the school was almost torn apart by racial strife on campus.  John F. Kennedy had to send in the National Guard in order to protect James Meredith, the first African American at Ole Miss.  I wont go into too much detail about the show, or give you a history lesson, its worth checking out on your own.  However, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride after watching it because of how far we have come.  

We in the South get kicked around and made fun of a lot.  Some of it is well deserved, well earned.  We have made mistakes and sometimes continue to do so.  However, it was great to see someone take notice of the strides that have been made in the South and the conflict that still rests within many of us.  I think of how far the South has come just in my parents lifetime.  My parents grew up in the segregated south.  When its talked about here in Chicago, even people older than my parents only remember it from TV or  school books.  My Mom and Dad lived it.  I know that many of my grandparents ignored the "laws" and treated everyone as best as they could.  My great grandparents owned a grocery store.  They offered credit to their regular customers, white....and black.  To them, everyone was poor, everyone was the same.  I am proud of that.  There were a lot of people like my great grandparents in the South, I would like to think it was the silent majority. But it doesn't change the way things were back then in much of the South- the separation, the fear, the hate.  To go from separate doorways, separate water fountains, and separate counters in a deli, to an African American in the White House- IN ONE LIFETIME- is pretty impressive. That's what my parents have lived through, that's the stories they know from experience, not some text book. 

You can't really talk about the South without talking about the SEC.  When Kennedy addressed the nation about forced integration, even JFK mentioned it.  The first SEC school to have a African American basketball player was Vanderbilt.  The first SEC to have an African American football player was Kentucky.  I'm proud of that too. Ole Miss (itself) has gone from 1962, to having their first African American student body president this year. I can understand how it is easy for you to throw stones from your couch, hundreds of miles away.  I can see why you think we are all dumb rednecks.  Again, we do enough to continue to earn that.  However,  you cant really understand our love for the South.  The good and the bad.  You haven't lived it.   You don't know what its like to love a song like Dixie, but at the same time be ashamed at some of the things Dixie stood for.  You don't know what its like to have your relatives, many of whom were honorable men, get painted with a broad, negative, brush because they wore gray.

Now that I am in Chicago, I feel I can never really tell the proper story of the South.  I do get asked a lot, but I can never do it justice.  If it is a part of you, you can't really explain it.  If it isn't, you cant really understand.  Its not just a direction, its a way of life.  

We are a conflicted bunch, but we in the South have come a long way.  This 30 for 30 illustrates that.

Epilogue:  On que, Ole Miss strikes again.  Apparently some were upset after Obama won last night and their was minor rioting/flash mob in The Grove.  I have seen the video and its relatively minor stuff, but still pretty embarassing.   I would not be surprised if this 30 for 30 isnt somewhat related.  Like I said, we continue to do stupid things like this.