"Dixie Is Dixie Once More"
by American Quartet
Sheet music courtesy of Clarence Johnson |
Even in the South there were celebrations—to welcome home, among others, the Divisions of black troops. "Dixie is Dixie Once More" seems, on the surface, to suggest that Dixie has not been whole as the result of their absence—an admirable sentiment, if selfish. The double-edged suggestion that Dixie without blacks (and their music) was not whole matches the song, itself, only another minstrel routine with the typically stereotyped "darkie" characters telling bad jokes about razors, gin, and robbing chicken coops. The song even ends in that standard, not terribly subtle, observation of satisfaction from one of the observers, himself supposedly black, when he observes the troops in the parade, "Don't dey look nachul?" It should not be necessary to explain the standard definition of "natural" and the application, here, to blacks, to point out the terrible irony of the statement. Blacks in the south were still little more than slaves. Jim Crow was becoming the standard for the time. This song represents little change except the reality that black troops are in A.E.F. khaki and are returning as, again, some of the most decorated units under the American command. They have been recognized by their brothers in arms, they have been decorated and praised by other nations, and, most importantly, they have recognized their abilities as human beings to serve themselves. Another sea change in the social structure of post-war America is set in place.
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