Commissioned by the Van Every/Smith Galleries with the support of the Justice, Equality, and Community Grant

Photos courtesy of the artist and PATRON Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Photo Credit: Tim Johnson

The song "Dixie" (or "Dixie’s Land") is a contrafactum: one text is substituted for another while the music remains largely the same. It was written in 1859 by Dan Emmet of Ohio, founder of the first blackface minstrel troupe, the Virginia Minstrels. In 1861, shortly before Virginia seceded from the Union, the Richmond Dispatch deemed "Dixie" the “National Anthem of Secession” and the de facto anthem of the Confederacy. In fact, most of the song’s rewritten lyrics alternate between support of the Union and the Confederacy. By the end of the Civil War, Emmett’s song was forever linked to the South and slavery. "Dixie" continues to conjure America’s enduring history of racial injustice and violence.

Like many Southern colleges, Davidson College has its own particular relationship with "Dixie". The song was performed at Davidson athletic events into the 1960s. "Dixie" is part of the original score for Birth of a Nation, the film version of which screened in Davidson’s old student union (now the Sloan Music Center) in April of 1961 as a social gathering before final exams. And in 1917, a Davidson College affiliate faculty member, Dr. Paul Barringer, wrote and copyrighted lyrics for the "War-Time Dixie" for the benefit of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Collins’s multipart work on paper, Dixie’s Land (1859-2001) consists of 10 contrafacta–each from a key moment in American history–transposed into a mournful minor key. Atop these pages are charcoal drawings of police deploying tear gas during the recent protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The final song included in the work is René Marie’s 2001 version, which puts the "Dixie" lyrics to the tune of Billie Holiday’s "Strange Fruit" (lyrics by Abel Meeropol). Each drawing is a haunting vision of the past in our present.

Click here to listen to artist Bethany Collins discuss Dixie's Land (1859-2001)

Bibliography

Collins, Bethany. Artist Talk, November 14, 2019. Davidson College.

Collins, Bethany. Sneak Peek of "Dixie's Land" by Bethany Collins. Van Every/Smith Galleries Blog. July 9, 2020

DeAngelis, Mary. Exhibition Connects Haunted Past to Present Through Confederate Anthem. Davidson College. August 21, 2020.

Newman, Lia & Van E. Hillard. Seeing/Saying: Images and Text. Davidson, North Carolina: Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, 2016.

Stewart, Rachel. Bethany Collins on "From Pandemic to Protests." Piedmont Arts Podcast. September 21, 2020 9:00am-9:15am.