Mississippi town shedding Confederates mascot
CALEDONIA, Miss — Seed Tick Road, a winding stretch of street dotted with cotton fields and pastures and homes, threads through Mississippi, northeast of Columbus.
The occasional service station sits mostly idle on the side of the road leading into the town of just over 1,000 people.
“Welcome to Caledonia,” reads a red rectangular sign at the town's limits. “Enriched by the past, preparing for the future.”
Two quick lefts and a right finds 111 Confederate Drive, a dead-end street destined for a name change, where Caledonia High School is located.
It's one of three Lowndes County Schools on the campus, where more than 2,000 students from Caledonia and the surrounding areas, including some from the nearby Air Force base in Columbus attend.
It's also where the future has met the past. In July, prompted by a Facebook group calling for change, the school board decided it was time to retire the controversial Confederates nickname.
The school, which opened in 1957, often shortens its nickname to “Feds.” But many were fed up with the nickname in and around the town where, according to the 2010 census, 92.7% of its residents were white and 4% Black.
The decision to change the name
comes during a time when schools across the country are shedding confederate ties.
“I feel good about it because I think it could solve a lot of problems,” said a 17-year-old Black student who asked to not be identified. “We are a brotherhood (on the football team) and we can get emotional with each other, but just like any other siblings ... we don't let it get to us.”
Seeing change
Carolyn Williams graduated from Caledonia High in 1983. She said she began attending Caledonia schools in the early 1970s, right after they were desegregated.
Her nephew, who lives with her, attends the high school.
Williams, who is Black, said she never gave much thought to the mascot when she was in school. But the nickname has had its opponents, including a U.S. District judge who wrote there was no good reason for a public school to have such a “divisive” nickname.
“At that time our parents maybe weren't as educated on it,” she said. “And if they knew about it, they might have been afraid to speak up.”
Williams said she never took much interest in the issue until this year, though, when she saw the Facebook discussion and some of the divisiveness in it.
She said she had a discussion with her nephew about the meanings attached to the Confederates nickname.
“He never said anything about it,” Williams said. “I decided to ask him, ‘Do you know what it means?' He said ‘Yes, it was something about slavery.' He might have tuned it out, because in our home we see no color.”
But the family saw what was happening in its community. Before the Facebook discussion about the mascot heated up in July, the county board voted against relocating the Confederate monument that stands in front of the courthouse.
The county received some attention when supervisor Harry Sanders made racist remarks against Black people. The board reversed its vote less than a month later.
The state of Mississippi also just changed from its 126-year-old, Confederate-themed flag.
“There's whites that don't like blacks and blacks that don't like whites,” Williams said. “If (changing the name) will bring everybody closer. ... Either the name is going to be changed now or you're going to go down the road and 10 years later it's going to come up again.”
Looking ahead
There's a lot of work to be done after the board announces the new nickname — Cavaliers won out over Cardinals and Commodores, the school announced in mid-november.
In the shadows of the school, just across the street behind the town's water plant, stands a water tower that reads “CALEDONIA HOME OF THE FEDS” in chipping maroon, one of the school's colors.
There's the baseball field, where the word “Confederates” was spelled out behind home plate.
There's the cost of replacing sports uniforms, such as the baseball team's which have “Confederates” across the front.
“You can find stupid all over,” said Barton Donald, who is part of the school's booster club. “I had never even thought about it, but if it offended one person I'm all for changing it. I think initially some of (the problem) the community had it was not a racial thing but a financial thing.”
Donald moved to Caledonia around 25 years ago. He has been involved with coaching pee-wee football programs there and has two sons who attend the high school and play football.
Donald and the school are trying to raise money to make the necessary cosmetic changes. He isn't sure exactly what the cost will be, but he said whatever it is, it is time.
“I think people are ready for change,” he said. “Caledonia is a melting pot. It's a gumbo. The more flavors you put in there ... you throw them all in there and shake it up and that's Caledonia. It's a wonderful place to represent change and go forward.”
‘Everybody has a voice’
The Caledonia football team was about to take the field for senior night in late October.
A giant American flag made its way in the slight breeze as it hung from a firetruck behind one end zone.
There was little hint of the school nickname, save for the words “GO FEDS” spelled out in foam cups in a fence near the field's entrance and the word “FEDS” in white letters on the padding below each goalpost.
The scoreboard read “CHS,” same as the letters at midfield.
Cheerleaders, who also had “CHS” on their outfits, offered a quick reminder during the first quarter, when they chanted: “First and 10, let's do it again. Go, Feds, go.”
Gregory Elliott, who is in his first year as the high school principal but has worked at the school for 14 years, said there was some divisiveness about changing the mascot. He the schools' new nickname was put to a vote.
“Some people want to change it,” Elliott said. “Of course there are people who have been here a long time that didn't want to change it.
“It's important that everybody has a voice that's involved in the school and the community. I think the students are No. 1 but also understand the community is important. ... We want our students that have something they can be proud of, be unified. Let's move forward.”
Just like the sign coming into town implies.
Reach Paul Skrbina at pskrbina@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @Paulskrbina.