Whistling Dixie in Utah: The Beginnings of Dixie State University
In 1888, the St. George Stake Academy was established as part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' (LDS) education system. The St. George Stake Academy became a high school in 1909 and was funded by the LDS church until 1911. "Dixie" was incorporated into the school's name in 1913 when it was renamed Dixie Academy and continued forward when Dixie Academy became Dixie Normal College in 1916 (Alder). The forward of the 1916 yearbook included in this exhibit shows a community immensely proud of the college's use and perpetuation of the "Dixie" name. The final line of the yearbook, "Our neighboring counties will certainly feel to support this great institution in Southern Utah instead of sending every thing to the North," may signal the emergence of a distinctly Southern identity at the college that is at odds with the "north."
When the State of Utah education system expanded, the LDS church started to close its academies. As the Great Depression gripped the nation, the LDS church moved to shut down Dixie Junior College in 1933. Between 1933 and 1935, the college was kept afloat solely by the community (Alder). The State Board of Education eventually incorporated Dixie Junior College into its system in 1935 and the college managed to survive several additional proposed closures by the state legislature that occurred through 1960 (Alder). The ongoing efforts to preserve the college echo early Latter-day Saints "pioneer" colonists' struggles to survive in the harsh desert region, while the northern part of Utah territory enjoyed relative stability and economic success that perhaps helped to cement the small, desert school's views of itself as a community of southerners opposing the economic and political giants of northern Utah.
Seldom used in official county and city documents during early colonization of the area, "Dixie" became a popular name for the region and many businesses at the same time the college embraced the name (Bancroft). While impossible to sort out from popular entertainment of the era, racist cartoons in the 1916 yearbook and the 1917 "Dixie Minstrels" under the direction of the Dixie Normal College's music department perhaps point to an understanding that agriculture wasn't the only parallel between Utah's "Dixie" and the nation's "Dixie." By the 1960's, however, there are no such doubts.
~Spencer Potter
WORKS CITED
Alder, Douglas. Our History. 2019, about.dixie.edu/history/.
Bancroft, Kaitlyn. “Confederate Flags, Mock Slave Auctions, Minstrel Shows: Can Utah's 'Dixie' Be Separated from Past Associations?” St. George Spectrum & Daily News, 17 July 2021, www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2020/07/17/dixie-name-racist-history-confederacy-st-george-utah/5370233002/.
“The Dixie 1916 Year Book .” Washington County Historical Society, 2021, wchsutah.org/schools/dixie-college-yearbooks/1916YB.pdf.