KKK to protest ban on 'Dixie' at Ole Miss

OXFORD, Miss., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Ku Klux Klan members in Mississippi say they plan to protest a decision to forbid the Ole Miss band to play "From Dixie With Love" at football games.

The members of the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan say they will demonstrate Saturday morning on the University of Mississippi campus, The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal reported.

The football game that afternoon will be the first time in about 20 years the band will not play "From Dixie With Love," a medley including both the Confederate fight song and its northern counterpart, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." At the end, some fans cry, "The South will rise again."

Chancellor Dan Jones told the band this week the medley is out of the repertoire. He said some who like the medley appear to want "a revival of segregation."

In a statement, the KKK called the ban "an attack on our Southern heritage and culture."

"This is not a white or black issue at all. It's freedom of speech. They've got a right to say what they want at the game," Grand Titan Shane Tate said. "I'm just going to bring a few guys, show up and get our message across and then leave."