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1/ Have you ever wondered where “Ole Miss” comes from? We dug up the history.
It’s another case of white supremacy hiding in the nooks and crannies of our language. (Thread.)
It’s another case of white supremacy hiding in the nooks and crannies of our language. (Thread.)
2/ First, a little context. The University of Mississippi—known almost exclusively as “Ole Miss”—was founded in 1848 as an institution for slaveholder sons. It was created in part to keep students from studying in the north, where they might have picked up anti-slavery ideology.
3/ For a long time, the university only admitted white students. It did not accept its first Black student, James Meredith, until 1962, and Meredith’s acceptance came only after a lengthy legal battle. Violent protests ensued; two died and some 300 more were injured.
4/ The history of the name “Ole Miss” begins with a white student, Elma Meek, who proposed the name in 1896 for a new yearbook that was being created by an interfraternity group.
5/ Her inspiration for “Ole Miss” reportedly came from the name some slaves would use for the wife of their owner.
Meek later said she felt the name “connoted all the admiration and reverence accorded the womanhood of the Old South.” https://bit.ly/2VBPN0o
Meek later said she felt the name “connoted all the admiration and reverence accorded the womanhood of the Old South.” https://bit.ly/2VBPN0o
6/ The university has made attempts to tackle some of the most glaring representations of racism on campus—moving confederate statues, banning the Mississippi flag—but its official actions don’t always translate to the broader culture on campus.
