Contributed Image / Franklin County High School’s 1950 yearbook features the school’s Rebel mascot.The Tennessee Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating a complaint alleging racial discrimination in Franklin County Schools after a school board decision in October not to remove the “Rebel” mascot and fight song “Dixie” from Franklin County High.
The complaint, filed by Sewanee, Tennessee, resident Chris Colane on Nov. 9, 2020, claims “discrimination on the basis of race” by the school system in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to a Dec. 17, 2020, letter from the state to Franklin County Director of Schools Stanley Bean.
The complaint follows calls for change over the summer of 2020.
Colane, who is white, filed the complaint “[b]ecause of the absence of public discussion by any of the board members, I felt our petition was not given due consideration and that the Tennessee Office of Civil Rights would more thoroughly investigate our concerns,” she said in an emailed statement.
“These symbols continue to be a symbol of white oppression of African American students today,” she said. “There can be no equality of education under such symbols and conditions.”