Newsflash: Tourists Seek Dixie - Commentary by Frank Gillispie

Newsflash: Tourists Seek Dixie – Commentary by Frank Gillispie

There is an old saying: “Be careful what you wish for, or you might get it.” A group of people in Memphis Tennessee might do well to consider that warning.

They are making an effort to have the city’s three parks with Confederate themes renamed, and the statues and grave sites in them removed. They are Jefferson Davis Park, Confederate Memorial Park and Forrest Park. The park dedicated to Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest is the most contentious. It contains a large statue of the general marking the site of his and his wife’s tombs.

The South Bashers who are trying to rid America of all statues and monuments, and rename all streets and parks that memorialize Southern heroes will not be satisfied until everything Southern is wiped away.

Now it is interesting that the group pushing for the purge of Memphis has as its purpose the economic development of the city. Yet their insistence that Confederate symbols be purged from the city can only have the opposite effect. Consider what happened to Georgia during the Atlanta Olympics.

The Atlanta Olympics officials decided to sweep the Confederacy under the rug for that event. They refused to fly the Georgia flag that contained the battle flag. They rejected any vendors who wanted to sell Southern or Confederate memorabilia. They even wanted Coke to build a giant banner to hang in front of the Confederate carving on Stone mountain, but that proved to be impractical.

Athens Georgia staged a street festival and a circus to capture money from the soccer fans expected to flood the city. Madison County organized “A Day in the Country” for the same purpose.

Well, it didn’t work. Millions of people came to Georgia to experience two things. They came looking for the Olympics and for Dixie. When they got here, Dixie was nowhere to be found. So they went to the Olympic venues of their choice, then back to the airport and flew home.

Let me say it again. People from all over the world came to Georgia looking for Dixie. They wanted to see battle flags flying from every lamp post. They wanted to see Southern Belles in hoop skirts. They wanted to hear brass bands on the street corners playing “Dixie.” They wanted to see reinactors in union and confederate uniforms. They wanted to tour Tara.

But when they arrived, all signs of Dixie had been swept under the rug. They found the same kind of street festivals, circuses, vendors selling meaningless mementoes that they find in every tourist trap in every city on earth.

Georgia lost millions of dollars because they hid our unique heritage. She lost billions more in future tourist visits that our heritage would have brought in over the years [repeat visitors and word of mouth promotion].

In Athens, the street festival was a dismal failure. The circus went bankrupt and attempted to sue the city to recover some of their losses.

Madison County had a very nice little festival about rural life, but only locals came out. I do not remember seeing a single foreign tourist. And the only real excitement occurred when the Emu escaped and ran all over the fair grounds.

Now, Memphis has a rich and varied heritage that draws a large tourist trade... Dixie is a major part of that heritage. And the quickest way I know to wipe out their tourism industry is to “cleanse” the city of its southern icons.

The arrogance and anti-Southern bigotry of a handful of Memphis residents can cost the city millions. They need to think long and hard before they tear down even one statue.