Winston-Salem’s Dixie Classic Fair will no longer go by that name, the City Council and Mayor Allen Joines have unilaterally decided:
City officials say the question is no longer whether to drop the word Dixie from the name of the Dixie Classic Fair, but what the new name will be.
In a presentation Wednesday morning that caught members of the Fair Planning Committee off guard, Assistant City Manager Ben Rowe told the panel that the Winston-Salem City Council had decided the name must change, leaving some members of the committee asking why they were meeting at all.
“We are putting a lot of energy into finding a new name rather than finding out if a majority wants a new name,” committee member Lisa Eldridge said.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports “a group of people came to the general government committee on April 9, saying they found the name Dixie an offensive reminder of slavery in the south.” And apparently that was enough to convince council member D.D. Adams, who chairs the local government committee. What’s beautiful here is Adams’ logic justifying the fair’s name change:
Adams said that the fair committee could, if it wants to, oppose the name change, but that “the process will continue.” She noted that the city had recently moved the city’s Confederate statue, and that “since the statue came down, we haven’t heard from anybody.”
Making things worse is the city’s initial press release announcing the change, which—according to the Journal—–said “that the Fair Planning Committee would be seeking public input on a new name,” which in turn drew protest from committee members “who said the release made it look like they were the ones pushing for a new name.”
I’ve got mixed feelings about social media, but it’s still a good place to gauge the opinion of the average citizen. with that in mind, check out Journal’s Facebook post below.
