The Fort Smith School Board has passed a preliminary measure that would discontinue the use of "Dixie" as Southside High School's fight song in the forthcoming school year and phase out the use of the Rebel as the school's mascot in the 2016-17 school year.
According to a statement on the Fort Smith Public Schools Facebook page, the School Board on Tuesday night gave "great consideration to the continuing impact of perceived symbols of racism on the community, state and nation" before the preliminary motion.
The motion will be presented to the board for formal approval during its regularly scheduled meeting July 27.
The Rebel has been the school's mascot and "Dixie" its fight song since the high school opened more than 50 years ago, the statement said.
"The board understands the challenges of changing what has come to be the tradition of the Southside High School community and will work with the student body and staff over the next year to name a new mascot and fight song for the school," the statement said.
Wyman "Rick" Wade, a 21-year member of the School Board, said Tuesday night's vote was "long overdue."
"I told the board ... in the 21 years that I've been on the board, we've made a lot of decisions, but this is one of the proudest decisions that I've made," he said.
Wade said the board's 6-0 vote -- with one board member absent -- is likely to be formalized at the board's July meeting, although board members could change their minds.
The nationwide dialogue over Civil War-era symbols gained momentum after nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., were killed June 17 in a shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Dylann Storm Roof, 21, who has been charged with nine counts of murder in the shooting, had posed in photos displaying Confederate flags.
"Dixie" and the Rebel mascot were issues that Wade said he'd discussed with other board members "off and on" for almost two decades. He called the Charleston shooting a "catalyst for discussion."
"In 2015, perception is worth a lot," Wade said. "Some have said, 'Well, it's not racist.' But how is this perceived? How is it perceived by potential new members to this community?"
Wade mentioned the transition that the University of Mississippi has undergone in recent years by stripping itself of many Old South symbols as a path Southside could follow. The university, whose athletic teams are still known as the Ole Miss Rebels, stopped using Colonel Reb as an on-field mascot in 2003. A black bear was selected as the new on-field mascot in 2010.
Southside is not the only Arkansas school that uses Rebel or Rebels as its athletics nickname and mascot. At least three other school districts or schools in Arkansas listed Rebel or Rebels as their mascot name last year, according to a review of high schools listed on the Arkansas Activities Association website.
The Highland and Johnson County Westside school districts and Rural Special -- part of the Mountain View School District -- are all nicknamed Rebel or Rebels and employ some variation of a white, bearded, cane-wielding Southern man resembling Colonel Reb on their websites.
Southside School District in Batesville is nicknamed the Southerners but also uses a mascot resembling Colonel Reb.
Johnson County Westside Superintendent Jay Holland, whose last day as superintendent is next Wednesday, said that though Rebels is the district's nickname, other Southern symbols are not part of the district.
"We don't play the song 'Dixie,'" he said. "We don't have that as a fight song. We don't play it at any of our extracurricular activities, events, none of that. We don't hang the Rebel flag anywhere. It's not anywhere on campus."
Metro on 06/25/2015